Information Technology News

Spam Increasing on Campus

If you're thinking that more spam has suddenly started showing up in your email inbox, you're not imagining it. The campus is experiencing a surge in spam and it's affecting everyone at UH.

Spam is Increasing Worldwide

Spam, that unwanted, unsolicited, and ubiquitous electronic junk mail, has increased significantly in the past couple of months. Some estimates place the worldwide increase at 80%, making spam more than just a big nuisance. "The spike in spam levels is a result of a new generation of viruses and zombies that can infect computers much more quickly and are harder to get rid of," says John Levine, co-chair of the Internet Research Task Force's Anti-Spam Research Group.

Dangers of Spam

According to Symantec, a leading anti-spam company, identity theft, phishing, and stock scams are among the goals of the latest spam attacks. Nasty viruses, worms, and Trojan horses surreptitiously delivered and installed via spam can wreak havoc on computers. Spam-delivered viruses can turn innocent computers into zombies that lay dormant until they're told to wake up. Then, after they send out large numbers of spam messages, they go into hibernation before they can be detected and disabled.

Up to 85% of Email Is Spam

This recent increase in spam is occurring in spite of the best efforts of IT personnel and the university's primary anti-spam tool, Sophos PureMessage, to mitigate the problem. More spam is getting through because more spam is being distributed (recent estimates suggest that up to 85% of all email is spam), and it's being delivered in ways designed to get around and through our spam filters.

Ingenious Spammers

Spammers, whose ingenuity has resulted in creative new techniques to slip their products through institutional defenses, are largely to blame. They have come up with a number of innovative methods to deliver spam, including hiding spam in PDF files and in graphics boxes.

However, the recent spam increase can't be fully attributed to evildoers. Other things are contributing to the increase of spam on campus.

PureMessage Upgrade

As the university's frontline defense against spam, the PureMessage system is due for a much-needed upgrade in early-to-mid-October. According to Shivi Pawa, one of three UH-IT PureMessage system administrators along with Tom Monroe and Norma Martinez, "The problem is, where we usually receive around 500,000 email messages on campus daily, we're now experiencing as many as 700,000 per day. This is not only placing a larger burden on PureMessage, but it's also contributing to the intermittent delays in the delivery of messages we've been experiencing for the past several weeks."

Once the system upgrade is complete, "The improved software will employ the most current and sophisticated algorithms to catch all the spam that's now getting through," says Pawa, "and our spam levels should quickly return to normal, which will be a big reduction."

Exercise Safe Computing

So please be patient and continue to delete the spam messages that slip through until the upgrade occurs. And in the meantime, practice safe computing. It's now more important than ever.

IT recommends the following actions to keep you and your computer safe:

• Be cautious with any unsolicited email messages from senders you don't know or recognize.
• Never respond to any spam messages or click on any links in the message.
• Exercise caution when providing your email address on Websites, newsgroup lists, or other online public forums.
• When sending email messages to large numbers of recipients, consider using the blind copy (BCC) field to conceal their email addresses.
• Never provide your primary email address to anyone or any site you don't know or trust.
• Use one or two secondary email addresses when filling out Web registration forms or surveys at sites you don't want to receive further information from.
• Always check the site for a box that offers to send you additional information and select—or deselect it—as appropriate.

For More Information

Please phone the IT Support Center at 713.743.1411, or email support@uh.edu for further information.