Spam, is defined in many different ways, often incorrectly. The most common definition is "unwanted email" that you receive. The correct definition is "unsolicited email" that often comes repeatedly. The reality is that "spam" or Junk email fills our Inbox so much that we have a hard time telling it apart from legitimate emails we actually want to receive.

The answer is actually very easy, and very difficult, all at the same time. SPAM used to come almost entirely from mass emailers in a misguided, or underhanded, attempt to advertise for a client. However, these days, most SPAM (more than 90%) comes from PCs that have been compromised by hackers, who then use those PCs to send out any number of different emails in a variety of ways. Many times, they even harvest your address book of email addresses to add to their spamming databases, too.

Yes, that's right. One of the best ways they get YOUR email address is to swipe it out of your friends address book. And, brace yourself, that means that they also get all your friend's email addresses out of YOUR address book...

...unless you are truly protected. But let's talk about that in just a second.

Right now, let's consider that where the biggest problem lies. In an article at ComputerWorld, the "dirty dozen" top spamming countries are identified. This means that these are the countries with the highest populations of COMPROMISED computers that are sending out SPAM.

"In a matter of seconds, we can see compromised systems send messages on a dozen different topics from stock scams to diet drugs." Paul Ducklin, Sophos Asia Pacific head of technology, said that spammers are ready to "borrow" any computer illegally to send e-mail regardless of the location.

The sad truth is that your own PCs, at work or at home, could be a very real PART OF THE PROBLEM. You need to make sure your PCs are properly protected. At GTS we can examine your computers and recommend the best ways to protect your computers. The more PCs we can "lock down" from hackers taking control of them, then the bigger bite we can take out of that 90% that currently send SPAM. Protect all your PCs so that you can be part of the solution...not the problem. We'll help. Just give us a call?

For some interesting reading on the subject have a look at Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam