Wikipedia reports that spam averages 78% of all email sent. Since there are literally millions of email messages sent each day worldwide, email spam has virtually reached epidemic proportions.
Undoubtedly, most everybody has received a message about some miracle pill or a get rich scheme, and if you “were” like me, your inbox was full of them. At first it was just a nuisance, but for many people nowadays, it has almost reached epidemic proportions.
Hundreds of thousands of messages can be distributed within a few minutes in a modern mass mailing. As for spam mail, most spam is distributed from Zombie Networks. Zombie Networks or Botnets are formed by numerous computers infected with certain malicious software programs. These infected computers could belong to anybody. So if you own an infected computer, you could actually be part of the spam problem.
When it comes to reducing the amount of spam in your inbox, there is no silver bullet. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are making a stand and trying to block as much spam as they can, but its a never ending cat-and-mouse game. So part of the responsibility lies on each one of us on a daily basis, which involves a combination of caution, technique and software.
For best results, view the VIDEO above in “Full Screen”.
Free Antispam and Email Security Tests
Below are some websites to check the security of your email program, anti-spam effectiveness and to educate you about email security.
Free Anti Spam and Email Security Check – On this page, you can request a set of test messages to be delivered to a mail address of your choice. These test messages can be used to perform a basic test if your mail filtering setup is working.
Apocgraphy – Test Your Email Security! – Most people don’t know if they are vulnerable to infection by a virus or a hacker until they are infected. You enter your email address in the test request form and Apocgraphy will send you the test emails. Each test email will test a different vulnerability. For each test you will be provided an explanation of the test and the risks it represents.
SonicWALL Phishing IQ Test – not every e-mail you receive is a phish. In fact you should expect your bank or e-commerce vendor to send you legitimate e-mail. But how can you tell the difference? Well that’s what the Phishing IQ test is all about – give it a try.
ZDS™ – Zombie Detection System™ – This unique detection system has the ability to identify Zombies (also known as email botnets) and block them in real-time, thus reducing bandwidth and improving performance.
Email Blacklist Check – See if your server is blacklisted – This test will check a mail server IP address against 147 DNS based email blacklists. (Commonly called Realtime blacklist, DNSBL or RBL). If your mail server has been blacklisted, some email you send may not be delivered.
Blacklist Check – Check to see if your IP addresses are listed with nearly 70 DNS based anti-spam databases! Will your mail server be blocked by DNSbl filters?
MAXA Crypt – Online Encryption – allows to encrypt texts and send them via email. The encrypted results can either be decrypted online or offline.