89% of e-mails received by insurance agents today are classified as spam. That means that only one out of every ten emails is a legitimate business communication! Over the course of a year, financial losses can really add up through the lost productivity of you and your employees. However, the greatest threat to computer networks today is from malicious programs such as trojans, zombies, and viruses, which hitch a ride within many spam. Once upon your network, these programs can potentially mine customer data from your systems sending their confidential data to unscrupulous parties looking to steal the identities of your customers!
1/2 the way there.
The traditional way to decrease the number of spam received by an insurance agency is by installing an application that contains a spam blocker. Often these applications are bundled within an antivirus program. These programs do help; however, they are not always the most effective solution for curbing the flow of spam into your organization. These programs require constant updates to keep up with the latest spam signatures and techniques. These updates are rarely kept up-to-date after the initial subscription period expires. Additionally, these programs must download the infected spam to your machine before it can classify it as malicious. This download allows the infected item into your organization unrestricted before the program is able to quarantine the item.
Stopping the Attack
To effectively block spam and other malicious email, organizations are employing a new generation of spam blocking tools. One of the more effective ways being used today is through the use of spam firewalls. Prior to your mail server, incoming mail routes through your spam firewall's gateway which analyzes your mail for spam and other malicious code. Items classified as spam are held for further review within a quarantine folder, thus keeping an infected item from ever entering your organization. Furthermore, the firewall's spam signatures are kept up-to-date upon a single device, no more worrying that all computers are running the latest definitions.
For Insurance Agencies with less than fifty email users, many online providers offer hosted spam firewall protection. For larger organizations, your own spam firewall will easily pay for itself through productivity improvements and decreased downtime.