* Enterprises won't tolerate much more spam
For the past few weeks, I’ve been working on a project with Mark Gibbs, Network World columnist and author of Network World’s Web applications newsletter, about how to fight spam in the enterprise.
The project itself is a half-day event entitled “Blocking Spam,” sponsored by Surf Control a company that has developed an antispam filter.
Gibbs and I have been arguing back and forth that spam is driving e-mail into obsolescence. He says that corporations will only tolerate so much of a drop in productivity before they look to other sources of communication for their employees.
Already spam accounts for more than 30% of all e-mail on company servers. Gibbs says that number will continue to rise dramatically. Take a look at my inbox each day and it’s hard to disagree. In fact, over 70% of e-mail I receive each day is spam.
But my question to Gibbs is what else is there? And for e-commerce companies, how else are they going to get their message out?
As we’ve discussed here in the past few months, there are lots of efforts in the legislative community to curb spam. There are threats of financial punishment, jail time and the like floating around. But the problem has so penetrated the corporate walls that it’s hard to see a way clear.
Gibbs, in his presentation, shows that the hit on companies is tremendous. They suffer decreases in performance and network management, breaches in security and confidentiality, exposure to virus and worm distribution, and the potential for content liability issues.
He adds that U.S. organizations will lose $10 billion by the end of 2003 because of spam.
My argument to him is simple: these are all amazing statistics that no one can refute. But until something else comes along that can provide the user-friendly environment and ubiquity of e-mail, we’re stuck with it.
What do you think? Let me know at sgittlen@nww.com
