Ask Anything, Frequently or Not (FAQs)
If you need additional questions answered, please click here to use our live chat option, email us at support@cytexone.com, or call us at 212-477-0990. We love talking about our many products and solutions.
Isn't spam illegal? Won't new laws make the problem go away so there is no need for me to do anything about it?
The "Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM)" Act that took effect in the United States in January of 2004, doesn't make spam illegal. It places certain restrictions on what bulk mail senders can do, but provided they comply, they can still send spam. And CAN-SPAM does not apply to email sent from outside the US, even though other jurisdictions around the world have some measures in place. Statistics from email security vendors indicate that the volume of spam intercepted on behalf of their customers has not dropped significantly since the CAN-SPAM act came into force.
back to top
Can't I just delete spam from my inbox - it only takes a few minutes each day
Sure, you can. So can all the other tens, hundreds or thousands of people in your organization. Add up all the "few minutes," and how much productivity have you lost? How much time did your company's email server spend receiving and delivering the spam? How long did the urgent mail from your customer spend in the queue at your ISP, behind all the spam messages you deleted? This approach might be OK for a home user, but it doesn't scale for a business.
back to top
Do I need email protection if my ISP has spam filtering?
Some ISPs do provide a measure of protection. But by necessity, their techniques have to apply to all their customers, not just to you. And since not everyone's view on spam is the same, all they can provide is a "lowest common denominator" solution, otherwise they risk being over-aggressive in their filtering for some customers and too lenient for others. Again, this mechanism might be appropriate for home users, but for your business you need an enterprise-class solution that is configurable to your particular requirements.
If I always send an 'unsubscribe' message, doesn't that keep me off any spammers lists?
Hardened veterans of the anti-spam wars know this doesn't work-illegal spammers have no need to collect or act on opt-out requests. They don't care whether any individual wanted to receive their email or not-they work on percentages based on casting the widest net possible. At worst, you're confirming to the spammer that your address is valid and that you read their email — which can only encourage them to send you more email. The same is true for many "click here to unsubscribe" links-they can contain a hidden field that transmits your email address back to the spammer's server.
back to top
If my email server has a spam filter installed, doesn't this solve my problem?
It will go some of the way, certainly. Depending on its features, it may have filtering and quarantine facilities for dealing with unwanted mail. But it can only deal with email once it has already been delivered to your server-and so does nothing to relieve the load on your internet links or your ISP's mail queues. In fact, depending on the load of your servers, it probably slows email delivery down from the end-user's perspective, since scanning and filtering take up valuable CPU cycles.
back to top
My anti-spam solution keeps intercepting important emails, should I turn it off?
Every solution carries a risk of wrongly identifying genuine emails as spam. The risk is higher if the solution isn't easily tailored to your organization's unique requirements-one company's spam could be another company's important email. What's important is that your solution lets you inspect email that has been intercepted, preferably on a per-user basis, and allows you to teach it when it makes a mistake.
back to top
Isn't spam unstoppable-don't we just have to live with it?
No you don't have to "live with spam." With the right solution in place, your organization can get back to using its email system for business-critical purposes, safe in the knowledge that you're protected from email-borne threats.
back to top
|
