You really are drowning in spam

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According to the Managing Your Organisation’s E-mail and Messaging survey, the results of which were announced today by network management developer Ipswitch Inc., the feeling that you are drowning in spam happens for a reason: you are.

The survey revealed that 20% of those responding reported more than a 100% annual increase in spam on their organisations’ e-mail servers. Overall, 76% of IT managers reported some sort of increase in spam volumes. 27% of those surveyed reported receiving complaints from e-mail users about spam on a daily basis, while 25% reported receiving complaints on a weekly basis.

Regarding the number of incidents of viruses and malware installed on e-mail users’ computers, IT managers claimed an average of 30 infections of viruses, worms or Trojans over the past 12 months and 22 incidents of spyware or key logger installations over the same period. According to those surveyed, the total cost of defending against these threats averaged more than $13,000 annually when factoring in the costs of technology solutions, staff, recovery, remediation and end-user training. At the same time, the respondents indicated that the total annual cost of damages caused by e-mail related events, including lost productivity, staff time, and fines related to compliance regulations, averaged $5,600. Small to mid-size organisations spent 40% less than average while sustaining similar annual losses due to e-mail events.

IT managers rated white lists and black lists as the most important spam control tools to the management of their organisations’ messaging system. 56% of those surveyed rated both of these tools as “very important”. Free Real-Time Blackhole Lists (RBLS) were rated as “very important” by 37% of IT managers and challenge/response systems were rated the same by 21% of respondents. Subscription RBLS was the least-used tool by those surveyed, with only 15% rating it as “very important” and 18% rating it as “not important”.

The survey revealed that viruses and malware did not increase as rapidly as spam volumes on e-mail servers. Only 11% of IT managers reported an annual increase in viruses, worms and Trojan infections on e-mail users’ laptops and desktops, while 44% of respondents reported an annual decrease. In terms of spyware or key logger programs installed on e-mail users’ computers, 17% of IT managers reported an annual increase, 32% reported a decrease and 31% claimed that there was no change.

Dani AI

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highlighted a familiar problem: organisations often feel swamped by spam and the malware that rides along with it. The note below is a compact, practical playbook—immediate triage to stop active abuse, followed by durable controls and measurement so the situation stays under control long term.

First steps (first 24–72 hours):

  • Inspect mail logs and queues for sudden outbound spikes or abnormal SMTP AUTH activity; look for accounts sending far above typical volumes.
  • Suspend or reset credentials for any account showing mass outbound mail; apply temporary per-account send limits.
  • Throttle outbound SMTP connections at the MTA and block large/late-night bulk sends while investigating.
  • Run endpoint AV/anti‑malware scans and isolate compromised hosts from the network until cleaned.
  • Verify the mail server is not an open relay and close any unintended relaying.
  • Route high-probability spam to an admin quarantine for review rather than immediate delivery.

Durable controls and cautions:

  • Deploy email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) and roll DMARC out gradually: start with p=none and aggregate reporting, fix sources, then move to p=quarantine and finally p=reject. Be mindful that forwarding and third‑party senders can cause false positives; monitor reports before tightening policy.
  • Use layered filtering: reputation services, content/heuristic checks, and outbound abuse detection together work far better than any single control.
  • Maintain up‑to‑date server software, enforce strong credentials (and MFA for admin accounts), and keep a fast procedure for disabling compromised mailboxes.

Operationalize and measure:

  • Track clear KPIs (percent of mail blocked, spam complaint rate, compromised accounts per month, and mean time to remediate).
  • Keep an incident playbook and logging for forensics.
  • For small/mid organisations, consider a reputable cloud filtering provider or managed service to reduce operational load and costs.

This layered approach cuts immediate noise and lowers the long‑term risk and cost of spam-related infections, addressing the same operational pressures noted in the original post.

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