Website Security: Protecting It From Spam
Spam is considered to be a chief problem in the internet that often consumes one’s time and also increases business, consumer and government costs. Spam is regarded as a source of viruses, scams and offensive email content. It is not a valid commercial email that an individual have given their consent to.
Spam is an unsolicited of generally commercial product email, where advertising a service or a product is done through mass mail to thousands of “email addresses” at one single time.
There is a need for you to make sure and use an email software that is capable of efficiently filtering your incoming email, to avoid receiving spam. Outlook, Eudora and Pegasus are email applications that support email filtering.
Likewise, there is a need for you to utilize a ”website hosting provider” which permits unlimited email addresses or aliases, and/or what is called a “catch-all email address”. An email address which forwards email to another address is referred to as “alias”, while a “catch-all” email address forwards all incoming mail even with unknown addresses in one’s domain.
Guidelines on how to fight or avoid spam:
1. Do not post your email address on just about any website. Share it only with individuals that you know.
2. Use different “email addresses” for your various online projects or activities; for business contacts make one email address and another for online browsing or receiving newsletters, as when it will be congested with spam, you can just discard it.
3. Create a complex email address, such as one that consists of numbers and letters in combination. A complex email address makes it complicated for spammers to find your email address at random and saturate your “email account” through a software which combines randomly the “first and last names” of individuals.
4. Do not open, do not try, do not buy and never reply. Do not take the time to visit any Website or purchase anything that is promoted on a “spam message”. Remember, spam a scam. Delete the message immediately. Also, never click the “unsubscribe” link in your spam message, as this only confirms your email and you will receive more spam. When you are really interested in a certain website, directly access it via a “web browser.”
5. Protect your computer by installing an antivirus and anti-spam program, as these are capable of automatically scanning your incoming messages for spam before it reaches your inbox, and sends it to a junk mail box.
6. To effectively shield against attachments and messages carrying viruses, one can install or set up antivirus and “security patches” programs on the operating system of your computer and regularly update them.
7. A firewall will supply added security from hackers because it protects one’s privacy as well as personal his information.
8. Equip your computer first with antivirus, anti-spam and firewall protection before going online.
9. At all times, question the attachment source. Do not open any attachment unless when you are waiting for an attachment to be sent to you by someone that you know. When in doubt, just delete it.
There is no denying that spam will continue, but there are so many ways to block it, and one can be hopeful that in the coming years, individuals can look at “the spam epidemic” like the viruses before. Now, viruses are so much under control, and so will be “spamming”.
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