What is spam?

Spam is any undesirable, garbage e-mail that often comes from an unknown sender with a commercial or an offensive message.  Research has shown that between 10-30% of all e-mail is spam and the problem is steadily growing. 

The Gartner Group defines 4 types of spam:

1. Undesirable, garbage e-mail from an unauthorized sender that can contain offensive material
2. Chain letters, stories and hoaxes (such as false warnings about computer viruses)
3. E-mail from legitimate business people who are trying to make a living
4. E-mail from colleagues that are not job related 

What does the IT-Senteret do with spam?

The IT-Senteret has determined a need for a more intelligent system that uses various heuristics/algorithmics to determine whether e-mail is spam or not.  For this purpose the IT-Senteret has acquired Spam Prevention Service (SPS) from Trend Microsystems.  The College already has virus protection software from Trend Microsystems.  This software also includes a virus firewall that controls viruses on incoming e-mail.  Therefore, it was desirable to have an anti-spam system in the same software portfolio for updating, storing and compatibility purposes.

Initially SPS will not stop spam.  Spam e-mail is only marked with the word spam in the title/subject field.  This makes it possible to filter out undesirable e-mail by individual recipient.  The IT-Senteret provides guidelines for how you can set up filters for the following e-mail system:

• Eudora (under construction)

 We encourage you to try to set up this filtering system yourself.  If you cannot manage it, contact the IT-Senteret and we will help you as soon as possible.

 The Spam Prevention Service is similar to other systems; it is not fail safe. Sometimes e-mail that is not spam will be identified as spam, and other times e-mail that really is spam is let through.  Therefore, we want feedback from you about e-mail that has been incorrectly processed so that we can have the most effective system possible to filter out spam.  Send such messages to spam@himolde.no.

A typical problem is e-mail that is thought to be undesired advertisement, but is not, for example, a subscription to a newsletter from a newspaper/periodical.

In time when the service is accurately tuned those who wish can stop receiving spam e-mail.  However, it must be understood that some legitimate e-mail may be lost.