Behind The Numbers: Fighting Spam Cuts Deeper Into Spending

Spam is expected to grow exponentially over the next year at a rate of approximately 37% per month. That's an annual increase of more than 400%, according to InformationWeek Research's recent Spam in the Enterprise survey.

What priority do companies place on filtering spam in comparison with other tech initiatives?

Despite the negative impact that spam has on worker productivity and messaging bandwidth, filtering or stopping it isn't a high priority for most IT departments. Of the 550 business-technology professionals that participated, two in five report their company considers spam filtering very important. Fifty-three percent of sites consider E-mail filtering a moderate priority compared with 10% that don't consider it a business concern. Many business-technology professionals surveyed say that spam isn't really an issue until someone in the corporate suite complains.

While spam-filtering efforts are a secondary concern, many businesses are earmarking a larger slice of IT budgets for spam management this year. A quarter of sites anticipate spending 20% more on spam-filtering products this year, and a third will spend between 5% and 19% more than last year. Only 3% of sites expect to spend less on spam-filtering products than they did in 2002.

Companies plan to buy products such as virus-filtering tools, blacklists, and rules-based filtering tools. In addition, government legislation, legal action, and industry self-regulation will have some impact on buying practices.

The fight against spam E-mail will continue to evolve, as will the spammers' efforts. What tactics are proving most effective at your company to stop spammers? Let us know at the address below.

Lisa Smith
Managing Editor, Research
[email protected]

Blocking Successes

Approximately what percent of spam messages are blocked in a typical day?

Companies surveyed report successfully blocking an average of 54% of incoming spam. Preventing receipt varies slightly by company size, with large and midsize companies blocking 55% and 56% of all unwanted messages, respectively. Installing filtering devices helps, although the chance of identifying legitimate messages as spam increases as tools are added.