But AOL stopped short of saying it had quelled the spam epidemic -- or even claiming a near-perfect record. With billions of messages issued each day from far-flung locales like Russia or Zambia, promising low-rate credit cards, university degrees or an endless supply of Viagra, that would be folly.

After all, spam has metastasized as more and more companies have begun doing business on the Internet. Enterprises in particular are desperate to find ways to eradicate spam from their networks. However, choosing the right set of spam-fighting solutions is a tricky -- and by no means foolproof -- exercise in experimentation.

Spawn of Spam

J.P. Gownder, a Yankee Group senior analyst covering the small and medium business strategies space, told NewsFactor that a surfeit of spam presents major problems for businesses. Most obviously, it leads to loss of productivity as end users waste time deleting messages from their e-mail inboxes. It also taxes IT network administrators by tying up bandwidth and storage resources.

In addition, spam puts companies at risk for liability. When employees receive what Chris Kraft, director of product marketing at anti-spam software provider PureMessage, described as "virtual Hustler and other porno or offensive content ," businesses may find themselves accountable for contributing to a hostile work environment.

Spam Scams

To top it off, spam heightens network security risks because viruses frequently "piggyback" on messages downloaded to end users" computers, according to Gownder.

And Kraft told NewsFactor that spam e-mails themselves are often scams and frauds that use social engineering tactics on unsuspecting employees.

A spam message "may be mimicking as PayPal, asking for the recipient's username and password for security purposes," he said. "Or it may ask the end user to download a piece of software [in the attachment] that can turn their desktops into an open mail relay."

Avoiding the Blacklist

According to Gownder, the variety of technological methods that exist for dealing with spam can be sorted into a few different categories. Both whitelists and blacklists work according to similar principles. Whitelists are set up to accept e-mail only from domain names and addresses that are placed on a list. Blacklists work on the opposite principle, barring certain e-mail addresses and domains. (continued...)

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