Estimates show that the average business email user receives over 5,000 pieces of spam every year. Each piece of spam that makes its way into an employee’s inbox results in wasted time and computer resources. The best way to protect your business from spam is to invest in a sophisticated, intelligent spam blocker. Implementation of an effective spam blocker should be one of the top technology concerns of any new business.

An effective spam blocker searches incoming emails and filters out unsolicited advertising and emails with executable attachments. To reduce the incidence of legitimate emails erroneously being tagged as spam, filtering should be based on criteria you determine, as well as on context-sensitive threat detection and reputation filtering. By reviewing the reputation of the sender, and examining the contents of incoming emails, more than 80% of spam is blocked before ever reaching your network. The time, productivity, bandwidth, and system resources saved as a result of this reduction in spam are tremendous.

Why does so much spam get generated? The simple reason is that spam is effective. There are two main types of spam emails: each with a different purpose. The most common is the sales email, which is very similar to receiving a flyer in the mail or a brochure tucked under your windshield wiper at a mall parking lot. It is a form of mass advertising that spammers carefully design to slip past your spam blocker.

The benefit of this marketing strategy is that it enables spammers to fine-tune their message and target audience based on email harvesting location. For example, if you sign up for an online newsletter about investments you may find your inbox filled with hot stock tips and dubious investment advice. If you visit an adult website and register your email address, you are likely to receive massive amounts of porn or other sexually related spam. Although the vast majority of recipients have no interest in the contents of these spam emails, a spammer needs the campaign to be effective only .00001 percent of the time.

The second type of spam is also the most dangerous. Increasing numbers of spam emails contain viruses, and are sent with the sole purpose of delivering a damaging executable program to your computer. These malicious emails can result in stolen or corrupted data, identity theft, and considerable downtime for your business. More sophisticated types of viruses will even infect your system and then replicate, sending themselves to all of your email contacts or irreparably damaging the contents of your hard drive.

The best spam blocker for your business is one that is able to intercept unsolicited emails, while allowing legitimate emails to pass through the filter. Losing legitimate emails to an inferior spam blocker can result in missed communications, loss of sales, and client distrust. An effective, intelligent spam blocker will increase the productivity of your employees, while protecting your sensitive data, client information, and identity from harm.