SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif., (January 21, 2003) - If you received a personal e-mail requesting help from a Nigerian attorney last year, you weren't alone. Thousands of other e-mail users received it as well. This e-mail is ranked as one of the "Top 10 Most Annoying Spam" in 2002, according to SurfControl, a leader in the fight against spam as the world's number one Web and e-mail filtering company.
The bogus Nigerian e-mail was among the most widely distributed and recurring pieces of electronic junk sent to inboxes around the world, including thousands of inboxes in American corporations. Spam last year cost nearly $9 billion in lost productivity, increased hardware and operational costs, such as additional servers, storage and IT staff time to deal with the problem, as well as bandwidth-clogging network issues, according to recent industry research and SurfControl experts.
SurfControl researchers compiled a list of the 10 most annoying spam by subject line:
XXX Your Free Adult Sites Password Check out our new lower prices. Many "drug" types available. (Viagra) Get Cash Out! Refinance while rates are still low… Urgent and Confidential (Nigerian Hoax) Remote Control Car The Size of a Hot Wheel! Rated #1 Best Online Casino #1 Pasta Pot As Seen on TV Get Out of Credit Card Debt Meet Singles in Your Area Copy Any DVD in One Click
"We've seen a dramatic increase-more than double the number of inquiries-from companies interested in our SurfControl E-mail Filter and Anti-Spam Agent," said Paris Trudeau, SurfControl product marketing manager. "Companies were bombarded with spam in 2002 and this year they are looking for more help and new tools to control the ever-growing flood of spam."
SurfControl urges organizations consider layered protection, such as that offered through its SurfControl E-mail Filter 4.5, which combines strong anti-spam defense, anti-virus technology and advanced e-mail auditing and risk assessment features to protect against the ever-increasing variety of e-mail security risks.
SurfControl's Anti-Spam Agent is a powerful option that protects an organization from spam and junk mail through digital signature filtering to ensure near 100 percent accuracy and manages spam by text and multiple file types, including JPEGs, MPEGS and others. In addition, SurfControl also offers additional layers of spam control through intelligent content and digital signature recognition, reverse DNS lookup and HTML stripping capabilities. SurfControl also uses advanced technology known as Adaptive Reasoning Technology (ART) to apply the power and flexibility of neural networks to the challenge of content filtering and spam control.
"Spam is a huge problem, but companies worldwide are coming to realize it is only part of the problem," Trudeau says. "All Internet content you read, send and receive carries a risk. The need for e-mail filtering combined with intelligent anti-spam technology and other network security measures, has never been greater-and SurfControl's technology can help stop spam in its tracks," said Trudeau.
SurfControl is the only company in the security market that offers a total content security solution that combines Web and e-mail filtering technology with the industry's largest, most accurate and relevant content database. For example, SurfControl Web Filter with the Virtual Control Agent (VCA) provides expert content filtering and expanded site coverage to help companies customize security and manage Internet access to inadvertent or malicious threats to network security, as well as increase productivity, optimize network bandwidth, and limit legal liability. VCA dynamically categorizes new Web content putting relevant, specific and up-to-date content filtering in the hands of each organization. VCA's dynamic categorization combined with SurfControl URL Category list and daily updates provides the most comprehensive and accurate Internet management solution available.
