Symantec Survey Highlights Value Of Consumer Education In Fighting SPAM
Announcement posted by Symantec (Consumer) 17 May 2003
Consumers More Aware of Anti-Spam Tools Yet Remain At Risk from Spammers
Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC), the world leader in Internet security, today announced that there is a growing awareness among users of the issues surrounding spam, or unsolicited commercial email. According to an April 2003 survey of 1,000 users conducted for Symantec by InsightExpress, the pioneer in online market research services, users today are more cognisant of spam-fighting technologies than they were last fall. However, the survey also indicates that more education is needed in order to help minimise users' risk of receiving spam at home and at work.
"Spam is flooding the Internet, threatening not only the productivity but also the privacy of users as they are forced to deal with countless unsolicited and often deceptive email messages," said Steve Cullen, senior vice president, Consumer and Client Product Delivery at Symantec. "However, by educating themselves on the dangers of spam and by employing anti-spam technologies such as Norton Spam Alert found in Norton Internet Security, users can reduce their susceptibility to this growing threat."
To gauge users' ongoing understanding of and experience with spam, Symantec compared the results of the April 2003 survey with findings from an identical survey conducted in September 2002. The comparison revealed that while the amount of spam received by users has not changed, computer users have become more educated about anti-spam tools. For example, in September 2002, 42 per cent of respondents reported that they did not have a spam filter. By April 2003, the number of respondents without a spam filter had dropped to 31 per cent.
However, the survey results also underscored the need for additional user education by showing that users often unknowingly respond inappropriately to spam, thereby increasing rather than decreasing their risk. For example, nearly 30 per cent of respondents said they typically deal with spam by asking to be removed from the spammer's list. Yet, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Internet security experts including Symantec, responding to spam may actually result in even more unsolicited email as these responses confirm to spammers the accuracy of the targeted email address. In fact, the FTC recently conducted a study wherein the Commission and law enforcement partners tested whether "remove me" or "unsubscribe" options in spam were being honoured. Their findings showed that 63 per cent of the removal requests were not honoured.
The survey also revealed that users' top concerns and complaints about receiving unsolicited email are changing as the spam threat evolves. For example, the top complaint about spam today is that "it takes too much time to delete or get unsubscribed," according to 39 per cent of respondents to the April 2003 survey.
Thirty per cent of respondents to the current study said that their most pressing complaint about spam was its offensive content. A recent FTC investigation, available at www.ftc.gov, concluded, "Consumers who use email are exposed to a variety of spam, including objectionable messages - no matter the source of the address. Some email addresses [in the study] posted to children's newsgroups received a large amount of spam promoting adult Web sites, pitching work-at-home schemes, and even advertising hallucinogenic drugs."
Tying as the third most pressing concern of today's users, with 19 per cent of respondents each, was the complaint that spam is unsolicited or deceptive and that it raises concerns about privacy and sharing of personal information. The unsolicited and deceptive nature of spam was underscored in the FTC study which revealed that 100 per cent of the email addresses the Commission posted in chat rooms received spam, the content of which was not related to the sites were the email addresses were posted; the first received spam only eight minutes after the address was posted. Eighty-six per cent of the email addresses posted at newsgroups and Web pages received spam, as did 50 per cent of addresses at free personal Web page services and 27 per cent from message board postings.
Privacy is also a growing concern as spam proliferates. According to the FTC, a recent study by the Radicati Group, a market research group, estimated that 32 per cent of the 7.3 billion email messages sent are spam and that the figure is likely to increase substantially in the future.
"The increased volume of spam has increased the potential for fraud on the Internet," the FTC stated in its notice announcing an upcoming public forum on spam email. "Although not all spam is fraudulent, fraud operators have seized on the Internet's capacity to reach literally millions of consumers quickly and at a low cost through spam." Buying products offered through spammed email, for example, carries with it several risks, including defective or counterfeit product, the exposure and sharing of sensitive personal data over the Internet, and credit card theft.
In addition, spam emails have been used to lure unwary users to Web sites that contain viruses, spyware or other malicious code. Late last year, for example, an Internet adult entertainment company created a Trojan horse program that routed unsuspecting users to the company's pornography sites.
Users were tricked into accepting the program through a spam email message that promised to deliver an electronic greeting card. Users can learn how to protect themselves from spam by visiting Symantec's Spam Watch Response Center at http://www.symantec.com/spamwatch . This free site includes the top 10 tips for protecting privacy and avoiding spam scams. Users can also reduce their exposure to unsolicited email by using Symantec's Norton Internet Security 2003, which contains Norton Spam Alert to allow users to filter out annoying spam email messages.
About Symantec
Symantec, the world leader in Internet security technology, provides a broad range of content and network security software and appliance solutions to individuals, enterprises and service providers. The company is a leading provider of client, gateway and server security solutions for virus protection, firewall and virtual private network, vulnerability management, intrusion detection, Internet content and e-mail filtering, remote management technologies and security services to enterprises and service providers around the world. Symantec's Norton brand of consumer security products is a leader in worldwide retail sales and industry awards. Headquartered in Cupertino, Calif., Symantec has worldwide operations in 36 countries. For more information, please visit www.symantec.com.au
NOTE TO EDITORS: If you would like additional information on Symantec Corporation and its products, please view the Symantec Press Center at http://www.symantec.com/PressCenter/ on Symantec's Web site. All prices noted are in US dollars and are valid only in the United States.
Symantec and the Symantec logo are trademarks or registered trademarks, in the United States and certain other countries, of Symantec Corporation. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of the individual companies and are respectfully acknowledged
"Spam is flooding the Internet, threatening not only the productivity but also the privacy of users as they are forced to deal with countless unsolicited and often deceptive email messages," said Steve Cullen, senior vice president, Consumer and Client Product Delivery at Symantec. "However, by educating themselves on the dangers of spam and by employing anti-spam technologies such as Norton Spam Alert found in Norton Internet Security, users can reduce their susceptibility to this growing threat."
To gauge users' ongoing understanding of and experience with spam, Symantec compared the results of the April 2003 survey with findings from an identical survey conducted in September 2002. The comparison revealed that while the amount of spam received by users has not changed, computer users have become more educated about anti-spam tools. For example, in September 2002, 42 per cent of respondents reported that they did not have a spam filter. By April 2003, the number of respondents without a spam filter had dropped to 31 per cent.
However, the survey results also underscored the need for additional user education by showing that users often unknowingly respond inappropriately to spam, thereby increasing rather than decreasing their risk. For example, nearly 30 per cent of respondents said they typically deal with spam by asking to be removed from the spammer's list. Yet, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Internet security experts including Symantec, responding to spam may actually result in even more unsolicited email as these responses confirm to spammers the accuracy of the targeted email address. In fact, the FTC recently conducted a study wherein the Commission and law enforcement partners tested whether "remove me" or "unsubscribe" options in spam were being honoured. Their findings showed that 63 per cent of the removal requests were not honoured.
The survey also revealed that users' top concerns and complaints about receiving unsolicited email are changing as the spam threat evolves. For example, the top complaint about spam today is that "it takes too much time to delete or get unsubscribed," according to 39 per cent of respondents to the April 2003 survey.
Thirty per cent of respondents to the current study said that their most pressing complaint about spam was its offensive content. A recent FTC investigation, available at www.ftc.gov, concluded, "Consumers who use email are exposed to a variety of spam, including objectionable messages - no matter the source of the address. Some email addresses [in the study] posted to children's newsgroups received a large amount of spam promoting adult Web sites, pitching work-at-home schemes, and even advertising hallucinogenic drugs."
Tying as the third most pressing concern of today's users, with 19 per cent of respondents each, was the complaint that spam is unsolicited or deceptive and that it raises concerns about privacy and sharing of personal information. The unsolicited and deceptive nature of spam was underscored in the FTC study which revealed that 100 per cent of the email addresses the Commission posted in chat rooms received spam, the content of which was not related to the sites were the email addresses were posted; the first received spam only eight minutes after the address was posted. Eighty-six per cent of the email addresses posted at newsgroups and Web pages received spam, as did 50 per cent of addresses at free personal Web page services and 27 per cent from message board postings.
Privacy is also a growing concern as spam proliferates. According to the FTC, a recent study by the Radicati Group, a market research group, estimated that 32 per cent of the 7.3 billion email messages sent are spam and that the figure is likely to increase substantially in the future.
"The increased volume of spam has increased the potential for fraud on the Internet," the FTC stated in its notice announcing an upcoming public forum on spam email. "Although not all spam is fraudulent, fraud operators have seized on the Internet's capacity to reach literally millions of consumers quickly and at a low cost through spam." Buying products offered through spammed email, for example, carries with it several risks, including defective or counterfeit product, the exposure and sharing of sensitive personal data over the Internet, and credit card theft.
In addition, spam emails have been used to lure unwary users to Web sites that contain viruses, spyware or other malicious code. Late last year, for example, an Internet adult entertainment company created a Trojan horse program that routed unsuspecting users to the company's pornography sites.
Users were tricked into accepting the program through a spam email message that promised to deliver an electronic greeting card. Users can learn how to protect themselves from spam by visiting Symantec's Spam Watch Response Center at http://www.symantec.com/spamwatch . This free site includes the top 10 tips for protecting privacy and avoiding spam scams. Users can also reduce their exposure to unsolicited email by using Symantec's Norton Internet Security 2003, which contains Norton Spam Alert to allow users to filter out annoying spam email messages.
About Symantec
Symantec, the world leader in Internet security technology, provides a broad range of content and network security software and appliance solutions to individuals, enterprises and service providers. The company is a leading provider of client, gateway and server security solutions for virus protection, firewall and virtual private network, vulnerability management, intrusion detection, Internet content and e-mail filtering, remote management technologies and security services to enterprises and service providers around the world. Symantec's Norton brand of consumer security products is a leader in worldwide retail sales and industry awards. Headquartered in Cupertino, Calif., Symantec has worldwide operations in 36 countries. For more information, please visit www.symantec.com.au
NOTE TO EDITORS: If you would like additional information on Symantec Corporation and its products, please view the Symantec Press Center at http://www.symantec.com/PressCenter/ on Symantec's Web site. All prices noted are in US dollars and are valid only in the United States.
Symantec and the Symantec logo are trademarks or registered trademarks, in the United States and certain other countries, of Symantec Corporation. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of the individual companies and are respectfully acknowledged