HVBF Monthly Meeting - Information Systems Roundtable
Thursday, September 11, 2003, 8:30 AM - 9:30 AM

Host:

Loyola College in Maryland

Attending:

Vicki Abel, Right Management Consultants
Susan Auman, Maryland House of Delegates
Sam Almengor, Apex Professional Management
Mike Cheek, Bruce F. Grau Associates Inc
Al Copp, Woodhall Wine Cellars
Dennis Gleespan, Verizon
Andy Hack, System Source
Harris Mager, Verizon Communications
Tom Maze, Polaris Human Capital Management
Renaldo Ng, URS Corporation
John Reginaldi, BITS Inc
Mark Robertson, NuTec Design Associates
Walter Schneider, Lighthouse Consulting Inc.
Beverly Stiver, Healthlink
Bruce Stumpp, BNS Associates,
Dar Veverka, EA Engineering
Rick Webb, Atlantic Financial Federal Credit Union
Jamie Welsh, EA Engineering
Bob Williams, Maryland Department of Economic Development

Andy Hack, Director of Internet Operations for System Source led our discussion on Spam, which doesn’t stand for anything, but is certainly annoying.

Spam takes many forms but by definition is unwanted email. Its purpose is to sell legitimate products and services, fraudulent products or services, collect and confirm email addresses or to deny service. The most common purpose is to confirm email addresses, which lead to, you guessed it, more spam. The answer is; never respond to spam or attempt to “unsubscribe”. You will just confirm your email address. Just delete the unwanted messages.

Some tips to mitigate the amount of spam; avoid mailing lists, avoid free offers and giveaways, avoid click-through websites, avoid purchasing through messages. When forwarding messages, remove unnecessary addresses.

Keep your anti-virus programs up to date and update critical patches for your system.

You can get more information on this subject from Andy Hack, System Source, andyh@syssrc.com or call 410-771-5544 x 1.