When considering the issue of spam, or junk email, business owners need to also consider ways to prevent spam starting, just as we would rather prevent a disease than treat one. Once your email address is validated out there in the world of spammers it is out of your control how far and wide your address is passed along.

One of the methods used by spammers is to check over the code in a web site looking for email addresses.

One of the design methods used to provide email contact from a web site is to provide the email address actually in the code as a link that will open up the visitors email program with a new email addressed and ready for a message.

Firstly we need to understand that ‘spammers’ are not individual people, they are computer programs. It would be virtually impossible for a person to sit at a computer and search the internet for email addresses, then send emails to those addresses one at a time.

The process involves a computer program, scanning web pages constantly, looking for patterns that look like email addresses and copying the information into a database that then generates the mass emails.

There are better methods available - providing email contact links from your web site using scripts, rather than holding the address on the page where any person or program can search and view the source code.

Some businesses use temporary email addresses from their web sites to try to help prevent spam as well. This can work, however it feels more professional to email someone at a ‘real address’ rather than somewhere like hotmail when making a business enquiry.

How many strategies do you have in place to both prevent and deal with the spam issue?

Spam would have to be one of the single most annoying computer phenomenon we battle with. Often you may wonder why does anyone bother doing it, doesn’t everyone just delete it? Well it may surprise you to know that it remains economically viable because there are no real operating costs apart from managing mailing lists, and it is very difficult to hold senders accountable. The sheer number of spam being sent out means that a very low response rate can net a healthy profit.

The costs really are borne by the public and more so by the internet service provider, due to loss of productivity time and fraud. ISP’s have spent a lot of money adding extra capacity to their services to help people cope with the deluge.

It is estimated that it costs internet users tens of billions of dollars each year.

Spam consumes computer and network resources, and time and attention to dismiss unwanted messages, let alone the costs associated with falling for a scheme initiated by spam!

If you receive spam it is important that you never click on any links in the email. If you do, you could be directed to a false website that contains some malware that could retrieve personal information, banking details and passwords from your computer, and cause your computer to begin sending out spam to others.

Spam blocking techniques fall in one of two broad areas – adding technology to the mail transfer agent or putting the blocking appliance between the transfer agent and the internet.

There are a host of add-ons that can be used with your mail program if it is not cleaning enough spam out on it’s own, that are usually simple to install and use.

The second option is more common for large companies as they can handle high volumes of messages and it requires hardware and an administrator to manage.

Imagine a world without email? I do know some people who don’t use email, but I don’t know anyone in business that doesn’t.

Whilst email has opened up a world of fast, cheap communication, it has also opened up a means of unwanted communications – SPAM. If you wondered where the name came from, think of Monty Python and that haunting song (yes truly!).

Spam would have to be one of the most annoying phenomenons we encounter online and mostly we can recognise it as soon as it arrives, but sometimes the subject lines are clever enough to fool us for a moment. Having said that, it is still a fact that people are drawn into schemes that are obviously too good to be true every day, so it shows that the numbers game spammers play does work.

One of the most important things you can do in relation to spam is NEVER reply to them – many people get fed up with spam and start to hit reply to ‘tell the spammer off, and teach them a lesson’. This is never gets to any person who reads it, let alone learns a lesson, but what it does do is flags your email as an active email account that will respond, and is sold on to other spammers – just the opposite of what you were thinking to achieve!

Another measure you should take is to use a spam filter. Most quality email programs have a spam filtering feature, that allows you to mark off emails you receive as being spam so you don’t receive them again. Good spam filters also ‘learn’ what spam ‘looks’ like – types of subject lines, places they come from, so that you can cut down on the amount you get.

More hints next week on ways to cut down on attracting spam to your email.

As part of Small Business September I attended a seminar this week that looked at managing disasters in business.

There were many tips given and food for thought chewed over, as this is such an important aspect of business but one often neglected due to pressures of the daily workload or being unsure where to start.

I like to think that I am a fairly good business manager, but it highlighted areas I haven’t really given thought to, and I have 3 areas I need to attend to.

A great point made was to realise that you may be able to carry on business reasonably well with one disaster, but a combination may put too much pressure on without a plan in place.

Whilst small business need to plan for disaster, they may have higher impacts from different types of disaster than big business.

For example a sole trader has a disaster if they are seriously injured, whilst a big business would absorb this.

Some tips to think about when planning:

Secondary supplier arrangements can help manage dependencies.

• Keep a copy of critical contact details in your emergency kit for communication during a disaster.
• Know who is in charge within a chain of command
• Notify stakeholders such as banks, customers, landlords and make arrangements for the delay period.
• Prioritise who you can service to retain core business.
• Check your insurance coverage is relevant to your business and possible scenarios.
• Enable staff to work offsite to offset being cut off from the place of work.
• Each business is different in structure, products and services, so some tips will be more applicable than others.
• There are templates available online that you can use to create your plan so that it is relevant to your own situation.
• Don’t wait for another flood to realise you still haven’t instigated disaster planning, and remember floods are only one type of disaster we can find ourselves experiencing.

Being open and adaptive to new technologies can be an important business strategy. Technology can assist your business to effectively operate flexibly and encourage creativity from your employees.

Yet every piece of technology you introduce comes with some hidden and not-so-hidden costs – installation, maintenance, training, repair, patches, upgrades and more.

The way you address this tension between innovation and costs will depend on the size of your business and its organisational culture.

A standardisation policy that fits your situation is a strategy that can bring benefits to your purchasing and keep sweeping changes in check.

Standardising hardware is often one of the most difficult tasks as technology changes in individual components happen so rapidly and prices fluctuate frequently.

Operating system standards can make a surprising difference as you need to stay on top of updates and patches, and supporting multiple operating systems complicates this task. (eg XP and Vista)

Standardising the software in use can be more difficult as some users feel comfortable with old versions of software that they know well and can resist upgrading. However there are advantages to the organisation for keeping software versions standard that can be more effective than simply always having the latest.

Buying in quantity can provide access to lower prices and make installation and setup easier if everyone is receiving the same hardware or software at the same time. All equipment can be upgraded, tested and training given at the one time, and staff are able to support each other in learning the new system.

Keeping a technology inventory is often overlooked by smaller businesses but is a vital tool. The inventory should includ hardware, software, upgrades, updates, patches, issues and solutions, and maintenance carried out.

If something goes wrong with a piece of equipment having an inventory with a history is the most useful tool for the techie to correct the problem.