email accounts

Get ready for cell phone spam

Mon, 12 May 2008 06:59:59 -0400

Anthony Melone, Verizon Wireless's chief technology officer, started getting complaints last March from customers about unsolicited text messages that were flooding the network. He and his Verizon tech staff found the messages were coming from someone using email accounts at Microsoft's Internet portal, msn.com--just one recent source of the estimated 1.5 billion unsolicited cell phone text message expected in 2008.

This not only is an issue for CIOs and their IT departments at telecommunications companies, but also for employers who pay the cell phone bills of their workers and may get stuck with unnecessary charges and even bigger problems. Experts say that besides the annoyance and the extra costs, there is a threat of viruses as phones become more like personal computers.

Carriers adjust their spam filters to try and block offending messages, and computer security companies have developed products to help fight mobile phone spam. It might be worth assessing whether this is an issue at your company, and whether it rises to the level where action is needed.

For more on cell phone spam:
- see this New York Times article

Does your company need a Blog?

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 20:01:38 -0400

The Enterprise 2.0 conference this week in Boston was all about--you guessed it--Web 2.0 for the enterprise. While CIOs are often left scratching their heads about how best to embrace the technology, pundits this week offered up some great reasons why all companies should use an internal blog to collaborate and communicate. The case for rolling out social networking technologies include: enterprise email applications are not easy to search (which prevents employees from getting important information); critical information can be broadcasted to all who want to see it; when employees leave the company, their email accounts are typically dissolved and with any useful information that may have been on it; social networking contributes to organizational openness and accountability. And oh, yes, don't forget that people are probably already using blogs for personal reasons anyway, so why not provide an outlet for business issues? "The tools they use are the ones they use at home that work so well you can't stop them from bringing them into work," one expert said.

For the rest of the story:
- see this CIO article

Email retention is more than just common sense

Tue, 01 May 2007 20:01:38 -0400

Retaining email in some form or another is more critical these days, thanks to a host of regulations that require it. But a new study notes that only about 14 percent of all corporate email accounts are being backed up and archived for future access, although that study, from the Radicati Group, also indicates that the number is expected to rise to nearly 70 percent by 2011. The study also points out that without an archiving record of all relevant messages, regulated companies may be subject to heavy penalties. Choices for deploying an archiving solution include implementing a product in-house or using a product as a hosted service. Today, more than two-thirds of all archiving solutions are sold as on-premises products, although an interest in hosted archiving is growing fast.

Read more about the importance of archiving email:
- read the article at CIO Insight

ALSO:
- read this about email policies being broken in the financial sector
- and this on e-discovery and the CIO

The spam onslaught continues!

Mon, 27 Nov 2006 19:01:39 -0500

It's likely that this won't be news for most network administrators and email admins: Spam is at an all time worst. According to a new report from Postini, an email vendor, unsolicited email increased by 59 percent during the past month alone. At this point, junk email accounts for 91 percent of emails being sent. And not only is the volume of spam rising--by 120 percent this year--but the sophistication level is also on the rise. Experts say that nasty code is being hidden in what appear to be typical office files, such as Word and Excel documents. Enterprises, according to Postini, are in a "state of siege," though many organizations are getting a grip on reducing the risk that spam brings.

For more on the rise in spam:
- read the news at BPM Today

Related Article: U.S. is tops when it comes to spam-relay. Article

Email theft draws ire of Justice department

Thu, 10 Aug 2006 20:01:38 -0400

Email tampering clearly doesn't go over well with the Department of Justice. The agency's investigation and prosecution of a Utah man for allegedly accessing his ex-bosses' email accounts shows how seriously the government takes such illicit action. Tech leaders would be wise to pay attention as well, since the alleged action shows network access policies and procedures need to ensure former employees can't get back into systems once they're gone from the payroll.

For more on the email incident:
- read this PCWorld article