Spam e-mail drains corporate resources
13th October 2003 (The Star)

SPAM e-mail is a growing problem in Malaysia, which is not only annoying but can severely drain corporate resources in terms of time and money, according to a study conducted by the National Information Communication Technology Security and Emergency Response (NISER) in collaboration with ACNielsen.

The NISER Online Survey on Spamming covered organisations from various sectors including the government, manufacturing, services, finance, telecommunications and retail.

"This is the first online survey which NISER has commissioned to us," ACNielsen Malaysia managing director Steve Mitchell told reporters in Petaling ]aya.

He said the previous two NISER ICT Security Survey tackled general issues but were conducted in a more personal manner. Spam is commonly defined as unsolicited e-mail, often of a commercial nature, sent indiscriminately to individuals or groups via the Internet.

NISER director Lt Colonel Husin ]azri said the latest ad hoc study showed that spam was received in both personal and company e-mail, and 52% of organisations participating in the survey reported receiving 10 to 50 spam e-mails a day.

He said the findings showed that 66% of those organisations participating in the study saw the issue of spam as serious.

"Despite the high percentage of abhorrence, only 12% have taken steps to prevent their organisations from receiving spam e-mail," Husin said.

To continue the fight against spam, 82% of the organisations think that there should be a law to handle the nuisance, with 74% urging the government to take action against those who spam, and 61% calling for punishment against spammers by terminating their Internet account or imposing a fine.

Husin sees spamming as becoming an even bigger problem if left unchecked.

"Spamming will cause larger financial losses to corporations in time," he said, adding that there were also moral issues to consider about the negative impact of widespread spamming.