:: Deepquest ::

The tech quandary for many small businesses isn’t about building a better website or when to buy Microsoft’s new Vista operating system. It’s an old problem managers thought they’d already licked: spam.
Unwanted commercial e-mail has surged in recent months as online fraudsters, bogus pharmaceutical suppliers and others send billions of pieces of spam engineered to pierce defenses at companies of all sizes. The share of e-mail deemed junk rose as high as 80% last month from as low as 47% in September, says software security firm Symantec.

Small businesses are especially vulnerable because they don’t have full-time tech managers or big budgets to fight back. “They put up fewer defense shields,” says Mike Song, co-author of The Hamster Revolution: How to Manage Your Email Before It Manages You, published last month.

Most of the nation’s 6 million small employers have access to anti-spam shields on their computers; they just need to use them, Song and other e-mail authorities say. Need something stronger? Consider adding low-cost or free spam blockers such as MailWasher. Plus, don’t forget that small companies need employee e-mail-use policies, too.

In Minneapolis, self-employed publicist Alexis Walsko says her share of e-mail that is spam doubled in the past year. Lola Red PR’s overall e-mail volume surged to 350 messages a day.

more from [url=http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2007-02-20-spam-usat_x.htm]USA today[/url]