How to Protect Yourself From Spam and Unwanted Emails? Free Antivirus

Digital technology has revolutionized the information world, but without counting on viruses and malware that sabotage data transfers. In the mailing, it is mainly spam, these messages carry risks as much for the recipient of the mail as for his security system.

Spam overview

The spam is considered a threat sent externally via the mails. 

But unlike normal mail, spam is an inbox polluter. It is therefore a "trash mail". Some also call it “spam”.

Either way, spam is a real virus. It destabilizes the flow of data, fills the mailbox, and can cause an endless flow of messages. For companies, it is becoming a real danger, as much for safety as for productivity.

Statistics

According to the site statistica.com, spam has experienced great development in recent years. Traffic is growing exponentially globally. It has been reported that spam accounts for 50% of emails.

The United States is in first place with 12% of spam sent in one day. Then there are China and Russia.

Spams and Spammers

Besides, new technologies have enabled the development of anti-spam tools. Internet service providers (ISPs) and messaging providers offer filtering solutions that can reach 90% of spam (source: Signal Spam March 2018 ).

Also, spammers don't receive as many messages as they send. The response rate is lower according to TechRadar, on the order of one message for 12.5 million emails. The ratio is relatively low, but the volume is enormous so the number of victims is significant.

This is explained by the effective loss of productivity and temporary or permanent stoppages of activity. Internal theft and alteration of data, saturation and slowdown of the mail server, etc. are added. And according to Nucleus Research, an employee in the United States spends 1,673 euros on spam.

 And since the publication of these results, companies and organizations can take a breath again. The cost to be attributed to spam is expected to increase by 222 million euros per year (source: spamlaws.com ).

Viruses and spam Messages

Advertisements in the form of spam

The spam may have a simple advertising purpose. It is, therefore “one to one” network marketing. In some cases, this is the promotion of a site. Salespeople will send unnecessary emails to spread their notoriety. But in this case, the recipient would already be registered in a list of real or potential customers without their agreement ( opt-in ).

This list may have been stolen or purchased. The problem is the inability to unsubscribe ( opt-out ), by the terms of the CNIL and the GDPR. Here it is rather scams or paid services that are sold like adult sites, online gambling sites, home loans, training, etc.

Phishing or phishing

Derived from the "fishing" word or angling, phishing or "phishing" is a technique of deceiving the recipient via email fraud. So an email arrives as if it came from the bank, insurance, social security or some important service protected by a password.

The goal of the spammer is to steal personal information, usually passwords or credit card number. 

Phishing emails closely resemble official emails. 

Phishing emails are estimated at 91% of traffic and spammer attacks.

Protect yourself from spam

Ransomware or ransomware

the ransomware is a virus that tries to encrypt files in a given workstation or in a computer network.

The victim will therefore no longer have access to his computer and must pay a ransom to the hacker to have the decryption key. It is one of the most dangerous spam attacks because ransomware can lead to a business shutdown or worse.

The Los Angeles Hospital, in February 2016, was the victim of a ransomware attack via an email. For hours, medical records were blocked (source: FBI ).

Spyware and malware

The hacker then wishes to monitor the activities of his victim.

They can be used to steal passwords or activate the webcam to record private footage without the victims' knowledge.

Malware is also software malicious. They could be viruses, worms, or Trojan horses.

 

Spam, spam: the source

According to a study by SANS 2016 Threat Landscape Survey, Exploits at the End Point, 75% of attacks in companies come mainly from attachments to received emails. And 46% of computer attacks were caused by the famous clicks on links inserted in emails. 

Thus, hackers do not intervene directly but manage to bypass computer security systems. Businesses and organizations are forced to strengthen their IT defences and email security to reduce risk.

How to protect yourself from spam?

Usually, the fight against spam encompasses a few basics. The victim can choose to remain anonymous by not responding to emails. She must not send her email address or click on the links.

The protection of Spam can also start with a sort or filter a real legitimate messages and spam. It is quite possible to report received messages to your superiors to avoid spammers. Recipients can also filter senders and create a blacklist.

Still, others prefer webmails, which are more secure than usual messaging. 

Anti-virus and anti-spam anti-spam

It is then isolated in a spam folder. The message is automatically deleted after a certain time, but the user can also choose to leave it there.

The spam filter system is done before the e-mail is even received, during the SMTP transfer. Here the filter works the same as a firewall. The sender must therefore prove that he is human and not a robot.  

The most famous anti-viruses ( Protegent360, McAfee, Avast, Kaspersky, Norton Symantec, Bitdefender and AVG ) free antivirus offer protection by the quarantine system with an automatic scan of attachments. This helps to better protect e-mail from malicious programs.

As for anti-spam, they are autonomous and can be coupled with mail servers such as Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft 365, Gsuite, Postfix, Qmail, Exim, Lotus ... They contain for the best several anti-viruses, a list of emails safe, blacklist, algorithms, etc. 

The best solution: anti-spam

Statistics show that spam slows down internet network traffic and increases the risk of catching computer viruses. Spam e-mails harm recipients. They are a source of embarrassment, even frustration. 

 He designs a filter system by creating tabs.

Spam also saturates storage space and bandwidth in the computer network. 

Anti-spam adds additional security to emails. All businesses should then have a foolproof anti-spam policy to protect themselves from computer intruders. This should allow optimal filtration of spam and better protection of company data.

Email security

How to deal with anti-spam?

You should know that anti-spam is a filtering system for advertising messages, malware and ransomware. It can be installed on a personal computer or on a remote server (in companies). Protection is more secure when anti-spam is installed on a remote server.

The chosen anti-spam service must at least consist of:

RBL (Realtime Blackhole List): blacklists of IP addresses,

a heuristic analysis engine,

an algorithm for checking and analyzing URLs,

verification of DNS, DANE, SPF, DKIM and DMARC configurations,

artificial intelligence (AI) analysis,

several antimalware engines,

a verification of attachments by sandboxing,

a system for analyzing user behaviour.

Some spam blockers are too strict. They generate false positives and send legitimate emails to the spam tab. Others, on the contrary, do not filter enough. It is only a system based on a combination of the aforementioned technologies that will allow efficient filtering.

Conclusion

Almost half of the emails circulating on the planet are spam. And while victims of spammers can file a complaint, they can't always avoid them. For now, the best way to get rid of it is to get good anti-spam software. These programs have succeeded in reducing this proportion. Some of them even offer very high-quality protection.

Nuisance can affect productivity and lead to a total business shutdown, especially if the spam carried ransomware into a business. The safest solution remains anti-spam. In general, prefer outsourced protection of the entire messaging system for good efficiency. And whatever the quality of the technical solution chosen, do not forget that the sensitivity of the employees will always be necessary.