A Sophos poll of more than 1,000 computer users at small- to
medium-sized businesses (SMBs)*, has revealed that only 13 percent
of people believe their employers should not be held responsible
for blocking offensive email from being delivered into employees'
inboxes. Over 50 percent of those polled, however, felt that
employers should take preventative action to ensure that spam
containing violent, pornographic and other offensive content is not
delivered to the organisation's staff.
"It is irresponsible for employers not to protect their staff
from unsolicited emails containing offensive, pornographic and
racist content - it's practically asking for a Human Resources
fiasco," said Carole Theriault, security consultant at Sophos.
"More than half of those polled agreed that employers need to take
action, but whether the majority of employers are actually doing
anything about spam is another matter - Sophos research shows that
only about a quarter of all SMBs have anti-spam software in place."
Besides offending and distracting personnel, unfiltered spam
also wastes valuable time and network resources, resulting in a
significant loss of revenue for businesses. Sophos spam experts
estimate that unsolicited marketing emails account for more than 50
percent of all email traffic, and this figure is expected to rise
in the next year.
In December 2003, the UK implemented the Privacy and Electronic
Communications Regulation, which prohibited the sending of
unsolicited email for the purposes of direct marketing without the
explicit consent of the recipient. Unfortunately, this legislation
only applies to individual users - company inboxes are not
protected.
"So long as there is money to be made from sending unsolicited
email, spammers will continue to flog their services and wares -
whether content is unsavoury or not," continued Theriault. "By
blocking spam at the email gateway, businesses can not only save
time and money, they can also stop offensive communications
upsetting their employees."
* Conducted by New Business
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.