Businesses are falling victim to harmful email and software spam which could set them back thousands of pounds each year. 94 billion spam threats are sent each day throughout the world, causing detrimental effects to small businesses who struggle with the consequences. In terms of a worldwide figure, £1.6 billion is lost in productivity annually due to unsolicited emails. For example, the most targeted industries included energy and manufacturing industries, spending 6% more on IT to fix these issues, with a 2.8% loss of revenue; financial services at a 7% spend and 1.5% loss, and finally real estate with a 3% spend and a 0.8% loss.
According to a survey carried out in 2014, 68% of businesses suffer serious spam threats at least once each year, whilst 45% suffer at least three per year. Knowing whether you are at risk of these attacks can never be predicted, therefore ensuring that you have the correct software from the very beginning is crucial for prevention. An anti-spam filter can separate your important emails from spam emails, which then blocks the harmful content and allows you to be completely safe. Emails to watch out for include chain letters, adverts, and those which ask for bank account details. It is always best to pay extra attention to the finer details to see whether they are genuine or not.
Businesses can lose money through spam in a variety of ways, such as:
1. Lower employee productivity
Should your company be attacked by spam threats, there is little that employees can achieve within their working day if most of the workload is computer-based. A computer can become infected with malware with a simple act such as clicking on a harmful link. Despite this mistake, companies will still need to pay their employees a daily wage but will get little productivity in return, which could lose a significant amount of sales.
2. Disinfecting computers
A computer may start up again after getting spammed, however, the actual virus will most likely still be present. The entire system will need to be re-installed. This can be a costly job once the malware has worked its way into the system, therefore preventing it from occurring through a good anti-virus software or anti-spam filter would be an ideal solution.
3. Losing customers
If customers ever find out that a business they are purchasing from has had a computer hack, they are unlikely to trust the business’s security. Despite the fact it may not be the company’s fault, no customer wants to pass over their details with the risk of it being hacked into by outsiders. They will most likely shop elsewhere and sales could therefore fall.
4. Lost bandwidth
The amount of spam sent through could really eat up the business’s monthly internet allowance, which may cause serious issues to an employee’s working day. Most communication is completed through the internet; whether via email or video chats. Due to this, it may be necessary to expand the monthly allowance in order to compensate for the wasted bandwidth, yet this costs the business more money and of course won’t solve the issue.
If you would like any further information on email spam or preventing your computer from dangerous internet hacking, please contact us today at MailCleaner for more guidance.