Tech Minutes

Spam is a tricky subject to talk about, as it seems everyone has a different definition for it. Yet, most have come to the conclusion that spam is a bad thing. For today’s Tech Term, we want to delve deep into the different kinds of spam out there, as well as theorize where the term even came from.

You don’t need us to tell you that it’s extremely dangerous to hand out information to just anyone that contacts your business. This is important to keep in mind, especially considering how the majority of threats can be sent via email. You’ll likely encounter situations where you need to consider whether or not to click on attachments, as you could potentially put your business at risk.

Chances are, you’ve heard of spam, but many don’t know how to identify it in the first place, let alone work around it. Frankly, spam can cause some serious damage to your business if not properly dealt with. In today’s blog, you’ll learn what makes spam, “spam,” and how you can keep it from infecting your inbox.

It doesn’t matter which industry your organization falls into. Your business will always be susceptible to threats in some way, shape, or form. Therefore, it’s your responsibility to ensure that your business understands how to protect itself from these threats, before it’s too late. We’ll help you learn more about the various issues that you need to watch out for, and what you can do to stop them.

Email is an aging communication protocol, but it’s still an important asset nonetheless. Even though society continues to push toward bigger and greater things, the modern office still depends on having an email solution for a communication medium. While we can’t get away from email completely, it’s important to make sure that using it is as easy as possible, especially for the busy business owner.

How overwhelming is the amount of spam and junk mail you receive on a regular basis? Are you able to effectively navigate your inbox without wasting time on unimportant messages? If you’re a user of Gmail, you now have some tools available to you by default that can help you in the war on spam. You can block specific users and even unsubscribe from email campaigns, allowing you to take back time previously spent cleaning up your inbox.

While it might be nice to imagine making $500 a day by working from home, this is the type of thing only really seen in a website’s spam comments. If these annoyances are common, know that you’re not alone. Even the most innocent sites can be stricken with this issue. So, how can you minimize spam comments?

At the frontlines of the battle to secure your network is your company’s email accounts. Facing an onslaught of spam, malicious links, virus-filled attachments, and more, it’s up to each user to know what to look for and not let it through. This is a task that’s easier said than done.

Your business is literally assaulted by thousands of threats a day, and they could ruin your organization's goals in an instant if not for your defenses. With such powerful security measures at your disposal, we don’t blame you for lowering your defenses; however, it should be mentioned that your network security doesn’t protect you from all manners of threats. Attacks like phishing scams have a tendency to bypass your security measures, which makes them dangerous.

We all know that hacking is one of the biggest risks we must deal with in today’s technology-based society. Most hackers out there try to take advantage of the latest vulnerabilities in software, but there are some that use a more sophisticated method. These hackers try take advantage of the weaknesses found in the human psyche, rather than the technological flaws that consistently get patched.

With the critically-acclaimed television series, Game of Thrones returning to viewers this spring, it seems apt to discuss a manner of hacking attack called Dyre Wolf. This particular threat is just as fierce as its name implies, and can potentially cost businesses between $500,000 to $1.5 million per attack. It takes advantage of a multi-step phishing process, and your employees should understand how to avoid attacks like these.

Are your eyes constantly glued on your email inbox during the workday? It’s not bad to keep up with what’s going on in the office, but a recent study has linked constant email-checking to higher stress levels. This probably isn’t surprising to some, but some folks, like the researchers at the University of British Columbia, claim that there’s a maximum number of times to check your email throughout the day to minimize stress in the workplace.

Email has revolutionized the way we communicate, but in some cases it can be a dangerous distraction to productivity. This is especially true if your company is trying to maintain its own Exchange mail server. Does having email on the brain give you a headache? If so, you might consider looking into a hosted email Exchange solution from Directive.

While email offers several great benefits to those willing to deal with it, the most popular method of communicating in the office has its flaws. One of the most crippling is spam, which can ruin your inbox and your productivity. The unfortunate truth is that even the most diligent workers get hit with spam, but that doesn’t mean that your business’s productivity needs to suffer from it.

One of the most common ways computer viruses spread is through email. Most of the malware-carrying messages are caught in your account's spam filter, so you don't have to worry about those. It's the malicious emails that make it to your inbox that you need to be mindful of, and phishing emails are by far the most dangerous.

There's a computer security threat so menacing that not even the best security technology can stop it. It's called psychology, and it's used with email phishing scams to trick users into overriding their security solution. The only way to stop this threat is with common sense, and unfortunately, there's no app for that.

Nobody enjoys getting spam in their email inbox. It's annoying, it can take up precious time to sift through, and did we mention that it's annoying? Every email user is familiar with spam, but not everyone may know how spam got its infamous name. The answer may surprise you and make you chuckle.

Takeaway: A local employee wins the grand prize of a new car after becoming the 1,000,000th visitor to a random website, much to the jealousy of his fellow employees. His co-workers respond by entering every online sweepstakes while at work, bringing productivity to a halt.

Anytime you take a step into the Internet, there's a pretty good chance that you are going to step in a fresh and steamy pile of spam. Spam can ruin your company's Internet footprint. Spam can also find its way into the depths of your website and stink up the whole place. It's especially embarrassing when you don't even know that you have spam on the bottom of your virtual shoe; here's how it got there.