Rubbishing junk mail

Spam isn't just a threat to personal productivity; it's a potential legal minefield.

If you are like me, you are probably thinking more about sand dunes and salty air than margins and economic malaise at this time of year. But going on holiday can be a personal data catastrophe unless you take appropriate steps.

Without putting a message on your voicemail or setting an 'out of office' notification agent on your email you often return to a quagmire of missed calls and emails requiring immediate action.

Sometimes it takes the best part of two days to clear out the inbox, listen to the hundreds of voice messages, go through the post and get back up to speed.

But even with these electronic countermeasures designed to ease the pain of data overload there is an increasing problem which isn't just a threat to personal productivity, but a potential legal minefield. I'm talking about spam.

Although we live in a world where we often have to cut a passage to the front door through the huge pile of fliers, curry house menus, taxi numbers and estate agent brochures that have flown through the letterbox, the material is seldom offensive, racist or sexist.

But with email the amount of potentially offensive material being distributed is growing at a frightening rate, and this can cause companies untold woe, both internally and externally.

Although legislation is attempting to halt the flood of junk mail, the only real solution to make sure your customers don't get into hot water is to apply blocking and filtering technology. This also creates a huge margin opportunity for security resellers.

The problem with a lot of new issues created by technology is educating end users to the dangers because currently it seems that most companies see junk email as simply a nuisance, and are doing very little about it.