Rescue Me From Spam A Lot

We really hate spam in this country, don't we? Republican, Democrat or Independent, we all come together on this topic. I'm among you, but think about it for a moment.

This is a real visceral hate many of us have. It's like a violation of our space, of our time, of our very being. It's somehow different from junk snail mail. Maybe the paper kind is easier to deal with; maybe we have some sort of psychological closure with the ability of physically putting it in the circular file. I'm not sure why it is, but most people who open their email first thing in the morning to find 10, 20, 30 unwanted messages from all sorts of places do not have good things to say about it. Rarely are they even printable. Even worse is when you find out that your address has been spoofed, and now the whole world, seemingly, hates you because of the spam "you" have sent.

Because I live in this world called "Spam-A-Lot," it was with happiness that I read about Nemx Software's solution, announced earlier this week, to help alleviate cursed spam from our universe. Nemx' Power Tools 5.0 builds on standard Exchange features to protect Exchange servers from penetration and attacks from spam, viruses and hackers. The product offers IT administrators who are deploying Microsoft's Intelligent Message Filter (IMF) with a set of tools to accommodate and balance their ever-changing security requirements and users' needs. It also features nonsignature-based virus detection, SURBL interfacing, and detection of spoofed NDRs.

It's important to note that while IMF offers server-side message filtering and heuristics-based message analysis, every company is unique and will likely genuinely require a product such as this one to meet their particular needs. Nemx just happens to claim it is the first of its kind. Regardless, the important part of this is that we have not become passive toward spam; we are still waging a (sometimes futile, granted) war.

Maybe it's just me, but it seems that the amount of spam-mail I get is increasing. So I welcome any and all attempts to get rid of it. It slows down my server and my productivity. I really can live without a constant barrage of announcements discussing products aimed at various parts of the body. I honestly don't need to worry whether an email received from an unknown party is just from an interested reader and can be opened safely, or whether it is from some crank who has infected it with a virus.And, anyway, who wants an email every day that he or she could look 10 years younger?