The Internet has been both a blessing and a curse. It provides cheaper communication and access, but it’s also a conduit for junk e-mail and spyware. This electronic invasion will continue unless we can begin to control our data flows.

We’ve sorted, blocked and filtered data. But we have to change our approach to managing applications like e-mail; we have to shut off unwanted data that tries to flow into our space, rather than sort through the mess once it has arrived.

One company that has taken this approach to controlling and protecting data flows is ZeroNines, which has just launched a subscription service at MyFailsafe.com. The service is based on ZeroNines’ “zero-downtime” technology, which is being used in this application to provide highly available e-mail by running it simultaneously on servers located in several different geographical locations. Interestingly, during Florida’s recent head-on clash with Hurricane Frances, its servers in Florida went down, but the service remained available to its users.

MyFailsafe.com offers spam-blocking capabilities, blocking messages that aren’t from pre-authorized sources for trusted e-mail. It also offers the ability to send a challenge to e-mail senders, to verify that they are human instead of an automated spamming source. And finally, it offers disposable e-mail addresses that you can use in place of your real address when you “register” for something that asks for an e-mail address.

The disposable address still sends e-mail to your real inbox, for a specified number of messages or for a specified duration, and then the address simply disappears when no longer needed or if spam starts to appear. So you have the ability to turn off the spigot for spam sent to these disposable addresses, rather than accumulating more spam that has to be filtered out from your real e-mail address.

According to the Web site, there are encryption capabilities to follow. Currently offered to charter members for $5.95 a month, this service is not for beginners or for those who need handholding. But it does provide interesting capabilities, with more promised.

Denise Dubie is senior editor with Network World.