July 23, 2010
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - A new report says Alabama is the second most-spammed state in the country, and it has much to do with Alabama's metropolitan makeup and the size of businesses that operate in the state, according to Gary Warner, the director of research in computer forensics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).
Only residents of one other state, Idaho, receive more spam than computer users in Alabama, according to the report published July 20, 2010, by computer-security company Symantec. The report says that 94.4 percent of the e-mails received in Alabama are spam. Spam is the term used to describe unsolicited commercial e-mails that often carry links to computer viruses.
Warner says the Symantec report does not list the specific criteria that led to Alabama's poor rating, but he speculates the state's largely rural makeup contributes to the high number of spam attacks.
"In larger cities, you have national Internet service providers and greater competition, which leads to more robust service offerings, including advanced spam filtering," Warner says. "In rural communities, where smaller providers with potentially fewer resources are operating, there is the chance customers may not be protected as well."
In the Symantec report, the security company says small and mid-size companies are most at risk from spam and virus attacks. Warner says this is another factor that potentially explains Alabama's most-spammed ranking.
"The largest corporations have vast resources dedicated to information technology and computer security, which dramatically reduces the spam attacks to office computers. It also can translate to fewer attacks on home computers when employees apply at home the virus-protection lessons they learn at work," Warner says.
"Alabama is home to many small and mid-size businesses that don't have the same kind of resources dedicated to computer security, and this leaves more computers and users in the state vulnerable to attack," he says.
Warner encourages computer users to contact their Internet service or e-mail provider to ensure their personal accounts are protected using all the anti-spam solutions the provider offers.
"If your current providers aren't doing a good job, consider using an e-mail solution from Google, Microsoft or Yahoo! as an alternative way to get excellent spam protection," Warner says.
You can follow Gary Warner for the latest in computer security news at his blog, http://garwarner.blogspot.com/, or via Twitter, @GarWarner.
About UAB
UAB Computer Forensics Research is on the front lines of cybercrime and takes a three-part approach in its response to the problem: academic training to prepare the next generation cybercrime investigators, increased public awareness of cybercrime and research to develop cutting-edge options for battling cyber-criminals.