Security news
Security news14 September 2004
Stop the sleaze! Workers want bosses to take responsibility for blocking offensive spam, reveals Sophos poll
A Sophos poll of more than 1,000 computer users at small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs)*, has revealed that only 13 percent of people believe their employers should not be held responsible for blocking offensive email from being delivered into employees' inboxes. Over 50 percent of those polled, however, felt that employers should take preventative action to ensure that spam containing violent, pornographic and other offensive content is not delivered to the organisation's staff.
"It is irresponsible for employers not to protect their staff from unsolicited emails containing offensive, pornographic and racist content - it's practically asking for a Human Resources fiasco," said Carole Theriault, security consultant at Sophos. "More than half of those polled agreed that employers need to take action, but whether the majority of employers are actually doing anything about spam is another matter - Sophos research shows that only about a quarter of all SMBs have anti-spam software in place."
Besides offending and distracting personnel, unfiltered spam also wastes valuable time and network resources, resulting in a significant loss of revenue for businesses. Sophos spam experts estimate that unsolicited marketing emails account for more than 50 percent of all email traffic, and this figure is expected to rise in the next year.
In December 2003, the UK implemented the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulation, which prohibited the sending of unsolicited email for the purposes of direct marketing without the explicit consent of the recipient. Unfortunately, this legislation only applies to individual users - company inboxes are not protected.
"So long as there is money to be made from sending unsolicited email, spammers will continue to flog their services and wares - whether content is unsavoury or not," continued Theriault. "By blocking spam at the email gateway, businesses can not only save time and money, they can also stop offensive communications upsetting their employees."
* Conducted by New Business
About Sophos
Sophos enables enterprises all over the world to secure and control their IT infrastructure. Sophos's network access control, endpoint, web and email solutions simplify security to provide integrated defenses against malware, spyware, intrusions, unwanted applications, spam, policy abuse, data leakage and compliance drift. With over 20 years of experience, Sophos protects over 100 million users in nearly 150 countries with its reliably engineered security solutions and services. Recognized for its high level of customer satisfaction and powerful yet easy-to-use solutions, Sophos has received many industry awards, as well as positive reviews and certifications.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com
