Spam, or junk e-mail, is on the rise again, clogging the arteries of networks and servers and sending the blood pressure of many administrators through the ceiling. And while the scourge of spam has taken a back seat to threats from viruses and hackers in the past, many organizations are now recognizing their vulnerability to the risk of spam and reassessing their response.

As organizations around the world look for an effective solution, new kinds of junk e-mail threats have emerged that can be just as costly as their traditional counterparts. Junk e-mail sent to the workplace by well-meaning family and friends can have the same harmful effect on network bandwidth, user productivity, and legal vulnerability as the most professionally orchestrated commercial spam campaign.

To fight this well-meaning menace, organizations need to understand how spam is evolving. With this spam evolution, they must also change their response to it and look to more powerful and sophisticated technologies for a solution.