TMCnet LOGIN
Webinars
Outbound Call Center Featured Article
Outbound Spam Costs Service Providers up to $100,000 Per Year: Report
June 10, 2010
According to a new research study by industry analyst firm Osterman Research and Commtouch (News - Alert), 68 percent of service providers said that outbound spam costs them up to $100,000 per year.
This research report claims to be the first-ever comprehensive report on how outgoing messaging abuse affects service providers. The new study from Commtouch-Osterman is based on a survey of ISPs, hosting providers, managed service providers and Internet portals worldwide.
It queried specific questions in connection with spam and scam e-mail messages generated from within their networks. The report finds that exploitation of service providers' networks to send unsolicited e-mail can result in customer loss, operational cost hikes, brand damage and even potential lawsuits.
"The results of our research pinpoint a growing challenge in the industry that service providers need to protect against spammers who aim to abuse their networks," said Michael Osterman, president and founder of Osterman Research. "Outbound spam is a rising concern, and it is essential that service providers deal with the issue in order to protect their businesses."
Some of the vital findings from the research include:
- Around 68 percent of service providers said that outbound spam costs them up to $100,000 per year while 4 percent said that it costs them over $250,000 per year. Expenses as a result of outbound spam include things like IT helpdesk and anti-abuse team time.
- Almost 40 percent of respondents' IP addresses had been enlisted on Real Time Blackhole Lists (RBLs) in the past 12 months. RBLs are the published lists of the IP addresses of computers or networks identified as a spam sender. A service provider may be "blacklisted" as a result of outbound spam. This leads to the blocking of its customers' legitimate email by other service providers.
- Almost 70 percent of the service providers are in the process of evaluating solutions for their outbound spam problem. 50 percent are expected to deploy a solution within the next 12 months.
Recently, Commtouch launched an Outbound Spam Protection solution that provides real-time blocking of the outbound spam which is unique to each service provider. Also, it identifies spammers for the service providers' abuse teams.
Carolyn John is a Contributor to TMCnet. To read more of her articles, please columnist page.
Edited by Marisa Torrieri
More on Outbound Call Centers »
