MCLEAN, Va., Dec. 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Today,
Commtouch published results of a poll among recent Don't Risk
the Blacklist – Stop Outbound Spam webinar participants. The
December 4th poll of the
Commtouch webinar attendees shows that nearly 90 percent of their
respective organizations have had an IP address appear on a
blacklist in the last 12 months.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130731/MM56946LOGO)
The most common reason for blacklisting remains outbound spam,
with the most popular outbound spam sources being:
- Zombies, which are responsible for sending approximately 85
percent of all unwanted email messages, send spam directly to the
Internet using port 25
- User accounts or domains created exclusively for spamming
- Cybercriminals using compromised user accounts to send out
spam
Spam is easily traced to the sending IP range, resulting in the
addition of this range to Realtime Blackhole Lists (RBLs or IP
blocklists). Most service providers use these blocklists to enforce
message blocking rules – and as a consequence, legitimate email
sent from these ranges gets blocked.
Being blacklisted often has a significant business impact,
including:
- Removing the addresses from blocklists takes time and
resources
- Legitimate email senders drain support staff time with
complaints
- In a worst case scenario, customer churn is caused by the
reputational damage
"Traditional approaches, such as blocking port 25, reversed
inbound spam filters, or throttling, have limitations – and are
ineffective in the end because they treat symptoms, but not the
underlying problem," said Lior
Kohavi, chief technology officer at Commtouch. "Therefore,
it is important to protect mail systems with a specialized outbound
anti-spam solution that also pinpoints the spamming source. As the
common characteristic of all spam is mass distribution, such a
solution must be able to detect local and global recurrent
patterns."
During the live webinar, Commtouch probed what process aggrieved
parties set up to get their IP addresses removed from blocklists.
Half of all interviewees stated phone calls and emails sent by
their operations department helped to remove their address. Another
38 percent said, "We make it up as we go along," when asked how
their organization handles blocked addresses. Only 13 percent of
the participants stated they would not have to do anything because
there were automated processes in place. None of the participants
chose the answer "No process, as we never get blacklisted."
The Commtouch poll results clearly indicate that outbound spam
is omnipresent and causes significant issues and cost for
businesses of all sizes.
Here you can find the free recording of Commtouch's webinar
"Don't Risk the Blacklist – Stop Outbound Spam."
Here you can download a free whitepaper on Outbound Spam.
Further information about the Commtouch outbound anti-spam
solution can be found here.
About Commtouch
Commtouch® (NASDAQ: CTCH)
is a leading provider of Internet security technology and
cloud-based services for vendors and service providers, increasing
the value and profitability of our customers' solutions by
protecting billions of Internet transactions on a daily basis. With
12 global data centers and award-winning, patented technology,
Commtouch's email, Web, and antivirus capabilities easily integrate
into our customers' products and solutions, keeping safe more than
550 million end users. To learn more, visit www.commtouch.com.
- Blog: http://blog.commtouch.com/cafe
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/commtouch
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/commtouch
- Twitter: @Commtouch
Recurrent Pattern Detection, RPD, Zero-Hour and GlobalView
are trademarks, and Commtouch is a registered trademark of
Commtouch. U.S. Patent No. 6,330,590 is owned by Commtouch. All
other trademarks are the property of their respective
owners.
Company
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SOURCE Commtouch