Despite the best efforts of e-mail filters, spam is a growing problem for businesses, and Tennessee is a favorite target for spammers.
Tennessee is the fifth-most spammed state in the U.S. with a spam rate of 92.1 percent, according to Symantec's MessageLabs Intelligence Special Report for July. That means more than 9 of every 10 e-mails sent to Tennessee are spam.
"Actually, it's a bigger problem today than it was years ago because the risks are greater and the damage can be greater," Larry Bodie, CEO of Knoxville-based IT consulting firm Claris Networks said Tuesday. "As network complexity increases, the number of vulnerabilities a company faces increases."
Spam is a serious threat to business productivity, the MessageLabs report says.
"Spam isn't just a simple annoyance to businesses, but a real threat that can consume resources and put valuable information at risk regardless of location," MessageLabs Senior Analyst Paul Wood writes in the report. "From the World Cup to fake PDF Reader updates, even the most intricate scams are now widespread and the sheer size and power of today's botnets are making possible what was once unthinkable."
Botnets are groups of computers which have been infected by malicious software that allow an attacker to take control of the computers. MessageLabs estimates that botnets send 120 billion e-mails worldwide each day.
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