Spam Costs $712 per employee per year

[Spam & Cookies-mmm]

From our company's security newsletter.

The spam epidemic is costing U.S. businesses more than $700 per worker annually in lost productivity, according to a new study. A little multiplication tallies that up to $71 billion a year.

Ouch.

These figures come from a recent survey of 849 E-mail users that found that two of every three E-mail messages received by businesspeople are spam, despite the fact that 60% of companies filter spam.

We thought this an opportune time to reiterate some of the ABCs of spam, and how to minimize its effect on your own productivity.

What is spam?
Spam is the electronic version of junk mail. The term refers to unsolicited, usually unwanted, E-mail messages. Spam does not necessarily contain viruses — valid messages from legitimate sources could fall into this category.

How can you reduce the amount of spam?

A few quick tips:

*Don't give your E-mail address out arbitrarily. Think carefully, and you may want to open a freebie E-mail account that you use only for online shopping, bulletin boards, etc.

*Check privacy policies. Before submitting your E-mail address online, look for a privacy policy to see who your info will be shared with.

*Be aware of options selected by default. When you sign up for online accounts or services, there's usually a section asking if you want E-mail about other products and services. Keep in mind that Yes is probably the default – and change it!

*Use filters. Most E-mail programs offer filtering capabilities that allow you to block certain addresses, or to only allow E-mail from addresses on your contact list.

*Don't follow links in spam messages. Some spam relies on generators that try variations of E-mail addresses at certain domains.

© National Security Institute, Inc.

[Dr. Dave]

All good tips.

I wanted to point out that the teaser: "$700 per worker per year" is an example of social math- using acurate numbers but reporting them in such a way to make a problem seem important. This tactic is common in advocacy, health education, letter to the edictor writing, etc. (I learned about it in a master's level health communication course.) Parising teh statement reveales two fallacies:

1. The magnitude. If spam costs $700 per year per worker, I assume that means in "wasted time." Let's say that the average annual salary for people at a company who would be mostly at a computer- admin, managers, white collar types- is around $25/ hour or 50,000 per year. $700 per year would be a total of 28 hours of "lost time," or less than 10 minutes per day. IOW BFD. Even if I am way over estimating the salary by two-fold, we are talking minutes per day (on average).

2. The concept of "lost productivity" implies that everyone would otherwise be spending every one of those 10 minutes generating revenue, rather than chatting, um checking snopes, generally goofing off.

For some people who's job is to read and respond to emails, or to manage storage space, the incovenience is huge. Spam is a PITA, it moves viruses that take a lot more time and cause trouble, but beware of the use of creative accounting in general.

[annabohly]

Was I the only one who first thought of Spam the lunch meat????

[Canuckistan]

Here's what appears to be the National Security Institute's website. The above article doesn't fit in with the rest of the site -- here's a sample of their newsletter offerings; their articles focus on security, which spam doesn't seem to fit into per se.

ETA: This site also has the $712/employee figure. But it's from Nucleus Research.

[Spam & Cookies-mmm]

Originally Posted by Canuckistan

Here's what appears to be the National Security Institute's website. The above article doesn't fit in with the rest of the site -- here's a sample of their newsletter offerings; their articles focus on security, which spam doesn't seem to fit into per se.

I have no doubts about the source of the article. Here's the list of all the topics in this month's newsletter.

1. - Poor Security Practices Invite Hackers
2. - 10 Tips: Avoid Identity Theft
3. - Study: Spam Costs $712 per Employee
4. - What You Don’t Know About Wi-Fi Can Hurt You
5. - F.Y.I. (tidbits and trivia)
6. - Taxpayer Data at Risk in Lost IRS Laptops
7. - How Much Does A Security Breach Actually Cost?
8. - Study Calls for Technology Time-Out
9. - Employees Admit to Sharing Sensitive Information
10. - Security Newsbytes
11. - New Study Reveals Security Winners and Sinners
12. - Security FAQ: Keystroke Logging
13. - Next Hacker Target: Mobile Phones
14. - Never Take Candy or Software from Strangers
15. - Watercooler Stories
16. - Hackers Turn to PowerPoint for Virus Infection
17. - Virginia Tech Tragedy Triggers Phishing Frenzy
18. - More Hackers Aim at Government Computers
19. - Keep Your Social Security Number Safe
20. - ScamWatch

[Canuckistan]

Oh, I have doubts.

Since when does your company issue "newsletters"?

[Spam & Cookies-mmm]

Originally Posted by Canuckistan

Oh, I have doubts.

Since when does your company issue "newsletters"?

Do you want to rassle? 'cause I think I can take ya, as long as I have my with me.

Sorry about my ambiguous beginning in the OP. (It's me, guys. Are you used to this yet?) My employer subscribes to the Security Sense newsletter and sends out email with its articles and other security news included. This, and the list above, were from Security Sense.

[Canuckistan]

Originally Posted by Spam & Cookies-mmm

Do you want to rassle? 'cause I think I can take ya, as long as I have my with me.

I have steel chairs at home. BRING IT ON!

Sorry about my ambiguous beginning in the OP. (It's me, guys. Are you used to this yet?) My employer subscribes to the Security Sense newsletter and sends out email with its articles and other security news included. This, and the list above, were from Security Sense.

Okay, I'll accept that.

In any case, the $712 number does appear to come from an actual study, although I do not vouch for the validity of the study, mainly because I haven't seen it yet.