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1. What is spam in computer parlance?
Spam is a common name for e-mail that is sent to a group of recipients who have not requested it. The term "spam" encompasses a wide range of intrusive transmissions.
2. Can spam be considered the rough equivalent of the junk mail we get in our mailbox?
It is dramatically different. With the junk mail one receives in the U.S. mail box, most costs are incurred by the sender. Spam shifts almost all the costs onto the recipients and those agencies facilitating the transit and storage of those messages. Also, spam has a negative performance and capacity impact on the Internet infrastructure.
3. How does it get into our e-mail?
Spam gets into our e-mail by being directly sent to each individual address. Spammers leverage existing distribution lists to which they have ready access, or they build their own lists by collecting e-mail addresses from various sources. Spammers hover over many Usenet news groups and collect thousands of e-mail addresses of users posting articles. Usenet is particularly convenient for specific news groups that represent an interest or focus, which naturally allows a form of market segmenting.
4. Are there any indications that spam is effective for the advertiser?
Not that we are aware of. However, it's cheap -- mostly free. If the advertiser realizes even one new business relationship, it's worth it to them. With an anonymous service, they don't have to worry about dealing with the resulting complaints -- they can just abandon that account and get another one.
5. Since spam is an intrusion into the normal flow of e-mail, what can be done to reduce it?
On the technical level, we are employing recent versions of e-mail processing software that have been enhanced to combat spam. We have developed mechanisms that allow us to quickly react to reports of spam in-progress and block off the source.
We are also preparing to coordinate various departments running their own e-mail systems in a effort to improve mechanics of spam-control.
6. Is there anything individual users of e-mail can do to minimize spam messages?
If you get unsolicited e-mail from a particular address a couple of times, you can set your own rules to automatically delete future mail from that address.
Of course you can always forward the message to the Information Technology Security Office, and we can determine if it is appropriate to block all mail from that particular source for all IU users. Minimally, we can send an "official" complaint on behalf of IU asking that the user be chastised.
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