Online Survey on Spamming Issues

Online Survey on Spamming Issues

Sept 9th, 2003

2

Insert client logo in master herea VNU company

Executive Summary

Insert client logo in master here

3

Executive Summary� Incidence of organisations receiving spam is high at

95%

� Spam is mostly recognised as:- Unsolicited emails (82%)- Anonymous emails (77%)

� About 77% of organisations currently use technology to control spam- mainly using mail filter/anti spam software (85%)

� 79% agree that spam costs significant time and money, however:- only 27% would take action to be removed from

spammers’ mailing lists - only 48% would report the issue to respective

authorities


4

Executive Summary

� Organisations are concerned about the problem (75%). The spamming issue is seen as moderate and serious (66%). :- therefore, the government should

enforce legislation to outlaw spam as 95% of organisations suggest that the current law is inadequate

- currently, only 10% of those organisations who responded are aware of the existence of law related to spamming

5


Incidence and sourcesof spam


6

Yes,occasionally

32%

No, never1%My system

deletes before Isee it

3%

Yes, often64%

Base : All organisations = 102

Incidence of receiving spam

%

95% of organisations claimed that they have received spam emails before


7

Company'semail14%

Both54%

Personal email32%

Type of account normally receive spam

%

About 54% of organisations claim that they normally receive spam emails in both personal and company’s email



8

23

2

77

54

33

82Unsolicited

Sent bysomeone not

known

Has ads in it

Has links in it

Has specificwords in it

Other

How is SPAM usually recognised

%

Most organisations treat unsolicited and emails sent by someone unknown as spam



9

No of spam emails received in a day

43

52

5

Less than 10

10 - 50

Above 50

Mean Score 18.38

On average, about 18 spam emails are received per day

%



10

80

75

75

70

67

62

61

55

49

48

21

11

4

Get rich scheme

Unsolicited advertising

Free vacations or trip

Selling miscellaneous products (Viagra, or other sexualenhancement durgs etc.)

Pornography or adult material

Credit card offers

Network Marketing/ Multi-level Marketing/ Pyramid Marketing

Web gambling

Financial fraud

Chain letter

Jokes

Political

Others

Kinds of spam normally received

%

Most spam emails received are commercial-related solicitations



11

Summary

� About 95% claim that they have experience of receiving spam- Majority of them (54%) have received spam in both

personal and company’s email- 52% of organisations receives about 10 - 50 emails per

day

� Unsolicited emails (82%), emails sent by someone unknown (77%) and emails that has ads in it (54%) are mostly recognised as spams- The spams that they received are mostly related to

commercial solicitations

12


Attitude and feelings about spam


13

49

50

1

I tolerate it

It is annoying

It is excessivelyannoying

Reaction towards spam

37

36

12

15No, never

Taken action toprevent spam

Yes, occasionally

Yes, always

Take offense to spam or not

Majority of those who have ever received spam feels that it is annoying and are offended by it

% %



14

91

39

27

7

4

1

Delete it immediately

Sometimes read it

Ask to be removed fromthe list

Perform other action

Report to relevantauthority

Always read it

Normal reaction upon receiving spam

%

Most will delete the spam emails immediately



15

Summary

� Most organisations find spamming annoying (90%) and are offended by it (73%)- However, only 12% have taken action to prevent

their organisations from receiving spams

� Reaction towards spam email:- 91% said that they would delete them

immediately- 39% said that they will sometimes read them- 27% said that they will take action to be

removed from the spam mailing list

16


Organisations’ concerns about spam


17

5

20

34

41

Very concerned (4)

Somewhatconcerned (3)

A little concerned(2)

Not at allconcerned (1)

Organisation’s concern in relation to spam

Mean Score 3.12

Organisations are concerned about spamming issues

%



18

14

20

62

4Very serious (3)

Moderate (2)

Not Serious at all(1)

Not Sure

Severity of spamming in organisations

Mean Score 1.81

66% think it is serious enough

%



19

Summary

� 41% of organisations are very concerned about spamming issues

� 66% see spamming issues as a serious problem and 20% of them think that it is not serious

20


Reporting spam incidences


21

36

13

4

2

5

52

Organization ITPersonnel

ISP

CERT

Law EnforcementAgencies

Other authority

I do not bother to reportto any parties

Parties report spam to

Spam activities are usually reported to IT personnel within the organisation. However, half of the victims usually ignore the issue

%



22

18

8

37

37Yes, always

Yes, sometimes

No

Not sure

Base : All organisations who report spam incidence = 49

Responsiveness of authorities reported spam to

3 out of 4 cases reported were followed up by respective authorities

%


23

6

18

14

35

27Yes, definitely helps

Yes, helps a little

No

Not sure

I have neverreported it to anyparties

Does reporting spam help to stop the problem?

%

Amongst those who reported spam activities, 3 in 5 think that reporting the problem to authorities can help stop the problem

Base : All organisations who report spam incidence = 49


24

Summary

� Half of organisations who responded (52%) do not bother to report spamming issues to any authorities

� Amongst those who reported, they will mainly seek assistance from their own organisations IT personnel (36%), ISP (13%) or CERT (4%)- Responsiveness of the authorities reported to

are fairly high (74%)- 62% who reported usually have the problem

rectified

25


Preventive measures taken by organisations


26

Yes39%

No47%

Not sure14%

Awareness of presence of spam policies

Only about 4 in 10 organisations are aware of the presence of spam policies

Awareness of presence of training for managing spam

% %

Yes14%

No76%

Not sure10%

Base : All organisations 102


27

23

11

3

85Mail Filter /Anti-Spam software

Do not have anytool or mechanism

Not sure

Other

Ref. Table 24B

Anti-spamming tools or mechanisms used by organisation

Most organisations have an anti-spamming tool in place to prevent spam emails

%



28

Summary

� About 77% of organisations have at least one type of anti-spamming tool to address spamming issues- Mail filter and anti-spamming software

are most widely used (85%)

� Awareness of the presence of spam policies is fairly low (39%)

29


Damages and costsinvolved in managing

spam


30

Does spam cost organisation significant time and money?

4 in 5 thinks that spam emails is a waste of resources

Yes79%

Not sure10%

No11%

%



31

91

84

69

41

30

4

Time wasted

Mailbox over quota

Slow accessing email

Psychological disturbances - stress

Denial of service

Others

Damages caused by spam

%

The damages caused by spam are mainly time-related and that it will affect the organisation’s email network



32

Summary

� Effects of spam are costly as 79% said that it is a total waste of resources such as time and money

� It usually causes damages such as email and network problems

�Mailbox over quota (84%)�Slow Access (69%)�Denial of service (30%)

33


Laws and regulations


34

Awareness of law related to spamming Should there be a law to handle spamming?

Yes10%No

58%

Not sure32% Yes

82%

No6%

Not sure12%

Majority agreed that there should be a law to handle spamming. However, only 1 in 9 are aware of the existence of legislation related

to spamming

% %



35

Is the law in Malaysia adequate to handle spamming?

Should government step in and take action against spam?

Only a minority think that the law in Malaysia is adequate to handle spamming. About 3 in 4 suggest that Malaysian government should be more

involved in helping to deal with spamming issues

Yes5%

No58%

Not sure37%

Yes74%

No10%

Not sure16%

% %



36

80

57

50

44

3

5

Blacklist spammers to allow filtering

Mass mailing agencies should pay an 'impact' fee

Create registry for those who do not want to receivespam

Government should make spamming illegal

I'd prefer some other policy

Don't know

Majority believe that identifying the spammers would be useful. About 2 in 5 suggest that the government should apply anti-spamming law

to cope with this issueWhat actions or policies the government could take against spam

%



37

Should spammer be punished?

Yes61%

Not sure25%

No14%

%

About 3 in 5 users indicated that spammers should be punished



38

61

61

60

56

51

27

16

1

1

ISP to terminate account

Fines

ISP to give warning

Blacklist the company by respective government agencies

Banned spammer from using internet by respectivegovernment agencies

Prosecuted by the court of law

Jail

No punishment should be imposed to spammer

Others

Punishment considered for spammer

%

More than half of the users feel that punishments such as termination of internet access, fines and warnings should be imposed



39

Summary� Low awareness in terms of existence of law related to

spamming (10%)

� 82% of organisations think that there should be a law to handle spamming- 74% reckon that government should take action against

those who spam- Only 5% of organisations said that current law in

Malaysia is adequate to handle the issue

� 61% think that spammers should be punished and suggested that spammers’ internet account should be terminated, be warned by ISP and fined

� More than 50% think that they should be blacklisted and restricted from accessing the internet

40


Demographics of respondents and their

organisations


41

Manufacturing11%

Others16%

Government9%

Services64%

Demographics by Industry

%

Sample Composition I



42

Respondents by profession Organisations by staff force

Manager31%

Director7%

Others5%

Officer10%

Executive47%

Small (less than 50)

24%

Medium (51 - 150)24%

Large (Above 150)52%

% %

Sample Composition II



43

57

25

12

2

2

2

Private Limited(Sendirian Berhad)

Public Limited(Syarikat Awam -

Berhad)

Government &Public Corporation

Partnership

Individual

Private Non-profit/NGO

Respondents’ department Organisation classification

65

7

7

5

4

2

2

8

MIS/IT

Sales

Marketing

Operations

BusinessDevelopment

Admin

Finance/Accounts

Others

Sample Composition III

% %


Online Survey on Spamming Issues

Documents

Transcript of Online Survey on Spamming Issues