Vigilance is the fatal weapon against spam

An American study on consumer e-mail security by the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group, carried out in North America and Western Europe, once again points the finger at consumers’ naivety when it comes to spam. MAAWG is a forum bringing together the messaging industry to fight against attacks or illicit messages. This forum has a billion e-mail addresses.

According to this study, eighty percent of users are aware of the existence of botnets and the viruses they can transmit via illicit messages, yet an impressive number of these “informed” users have responded or are responding to spam. Most of them reply to unsubscribe or to express their dissatisfaction with the sender. This behavior opens the door to fraud, phishing, identity theft and viruses. A third of “informed” users were aware of their vulnerability to these attacks.

To combat the increase in spam, users need to be aware of their role in this fight. In fact, replying to spam allows spammers to grow, thereby increasing the number of illicit message attacks. E-mail address holders are not only victims of these attacks, they can also become key players in the fight against them by adopting a responsible attitude, the first of which is not to open spam and to put it straight into the garbage can.

When questioned, more than half of all users claim that it’s up to ISPs or e-mail providers to fight this. While some users claim to be able to fight spam, a good half rely on commercial anti-virus software, which they consider to be effective. The fight against illicit messages is one that must be shared between the professionals who provide us with Internet services and us, the consumers. Let’s all be vigilant.