Web Version

News and information for staff members and the Madison community

Vol. II No. 3 - December 22, 2006

Spam: creativity unleashed

by Mark H. Evans, Technical Services

When Thomas Edison said, "To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk," did he imply that as the amount of junk increases, more inventive creativity will be unleashed? I don't know.

I do know that the graph shows that there has been a dramatic surge in MMSD inbound Internet email spam since last year. The New York Times on December 6 reported that the Federal Trade Commission acknowledged that spam traffic world-wide had doubled since last year. Obviously, their data is old as our November spike was over four times our highest point in 2005.

So what are we doing about this?

All MMSD inbound Internet email is passed through the email monitoring system of USInternet, a vendor we contract with for inbound email filtering. About 5% contain viruses which are killed, while over 80% is recognized as spam and is redirected to a secure directory that we temporarily maintain. The remaining 15% of the inbound traffic passes our dynamic checking criteria and is delivered to user mailboxes as if it is good stuff.

Our system is imperfect and constantly changing in an effort to keep up with evolving spam sophistication. However, we can expect the creative spirit of folks manipulating junk will continue, so some stuff we wish didn't, will continue getting through.

So what should you do?

• If a message looks like spam, delete it.
• If it has an attachment or a link to a Web site, don't open the attachment and don't visit the Web site.
• Don't reply and tell the sender to not email you stuff. Spam senders love that. They then know your address is good and they'll sell your address to other spammers.
• If the message looks especially bad because it looks threatening, then we want to know about it, so call our HelpDesk: 663-5853.

Is there anything I should do to protect my computer at home?

Normally, we don't get involved in your personal computer concerns. However, we're going to make an exception now, and give you personal advice.

First, we in Technical Services wish to emphasize that we normally do NOT advocate any particular product. However, some Technical Services staff have personal experience with some strategies and software solutions, so we'll let you know what they are.

We believe you want to protect your computer from 3 key threats: spy ware, viruses & hackers. If you do the following things, you may have a better chance of starting off the New Year right.

• If you use a broadband connection, you will want to ensure any hardware firewall (and associated wireless encryption) has been activated. Contact your ISP service provider for more info.
• Products like Norton Internet Security 2007 (www.symantec.com ~ $69.99) or McAfee VirusScan Plus (us.mcafee.com ~ $49.99) provide workstation firewalls, and antivirus and spy ware protection. These are subscription products that require annual on-line renewal.

As to another thought on invention, it does seem that some people with time on their hands could be doing creative things of greater value to others. The rest of us will try to compensate for them. Happy New Year!

Click image to enlarge

Web Version

Last Updated: Tue Jan 16 10:27:12 2007
Comments: comments@madison.k12.wi.us
Web Publisher: Chris Burch, cburch@madison.k12.wi.us
Technical Issues: webmaster@madison.k12.wi.us