CPA's Guide to Understanding and Controlling Spam Roman H
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University of Mississippi eGrove American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Guides, Handbooks and Manuals (AICPA) Historical Collection 1-1-2004 CPA's guide to understanding and controlling spam Roman H. Kepczyk American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Information Technology Section Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/aicpa_guides Part of the Accounting Commons, and the Taxation Commons Recommended Citation Kepczyk, Roman H. and American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Information Technology Section, "CPA's guide to understanding and controlling spam" (2004). Guides, Handbooks and Manuals. 199. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/aicpa_guides/199 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Historical Collection at eGrove. It has been accepted for inclusion in Guides, Handbooks and Manuals by an authorized administrator of eGrove. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ISO Certified 091015 AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF CERTIFIED P UBLIC ACCOUNTANTS Information Spam and Controlling to Understanding A CPA’sGuide Technology Section Roman H . Kepczyk, CPA, CITP CPA, . Kepczyk, AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF CERTIFIED P UBLIC ACCOUNTANTS Information Spam and Controlling to Understanding A CPA’sGuide Technology Section Roman H . Kepczyk, CPA, CITP CPA, . Kepczyk, Controlling Spam.qxd 8/24/2004 9:41 AM Page ii Notice to Readers A CPA’s Guide to Understanding and Controlling Spam does not represent an official position of the American Institute of Certi- fied Public Accountants, and it is distributed with the under- standing that the author and the publisher are not rendering accounting or other professional services in the publication. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. Copyright © 2004 by American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Inc. New York, NY 10036-8775 All rights reserved. For information about the procedure for requesting permission to make copies of any part of this work, please call the AICPA Copyright Permissions Hotline at (201) 938-3245. A Permissions Request Form for e-mailing requests is available at www.aicpa.org by clicking on the copyright notice on any page. Otherwise, requests should be written and mailed to the Permissions Department, AICPA, Harborside Financial Center, 201 Plaza Three, Jersey City, NJ 07311-3881. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 MI 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 ISBN 0-87051-602-7 Controlling Spam.qxd 8/24/2004 9:41 AM Page iii About the Author Roman H. Kepczyk, CPA, is the President of InfoTech Partners North America, Inc., and the lead technology management strategist for the firm. His primary focus is helping firms throughout North America effectively use information technol- ogy by implementing best practices and directing them towards today’s paperless or digital CPA firm. He has spent the past eight years consulting exclusively with CPA firms and prior to that, ten years with the CPA firm of Henry & Horne (Arizona’s largest regional firm), where he was the partner in charge of the firm’s management advisory services and micro- computer consulting practices. Roman also served as the firm’s administrative partner, overseeing internal accounting, market- ing, human resources, and was responsible for the creation and implementation of the firm’s technology plan and budget. He is currently the chairman of the American Institute of Certi- fied Public Accountants’ (AICPA’s) Information Technology Ex- ecutive Committee and a member of the AICPA’s Special Committee on Enhanced Business Reporting. He has also served as Chairman of the AICPA’s Top Technology Task Force, as well as having been involved with the AICPA eBusiness, Best Prac- tices, IT Research, IT Practices, and Group of 100 projects. Roman was included in the Accounting Today Most Influential People list for the years 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003, and was named a Technology Pathfinder by the AICPA’s Vision Project. Roman is also an advisory board member to the Association for Accounting Administration (AAA) and has served on the board of directors of the Arizona Society of CPAs. He has been a fea- tured national and regional speaker to thousands of CPA firms on information technology. Recent speaking engagements include topics of Today’s Digital CPA Firm, Strategic Technology Man- agement, Security and Privacy, Technology Tools, and the impact of remote computing/virtual office. iii Controlling Spam.qxd 8/24/2004 9:41 AM Page iv On a technical level, Roman is an AICPA Certified Information Technology Professional. He has authored technology chapters for the PPC MAP Handbook, PPC Guide to Paperless Engage- ments, and sections of the AICPA Management of an Accounting Practice Handbook (Internet, Knowledge Management), and coauthored the AICPA’s Top 10 Technologies 2003 and Their Im- pact on the Accounting Profession guide. He also authored the AAA Guide to CPA Firm Intranets and their 2003 Guide to Paperless CPA Firm Administration. Roman lives in Phoenix, Arizona, with Sylvie, Stephan, and An- toine. When he is not on the road consulting or grinding out pro- jects in the local Barnes and Noble Café, he enjoys running, hiking, biking, and road trips with his family. Special thanks go to David Cieslak, CPA, CITP from ITGUSA, and Nancy Cohen, CPA from the AICPA, for reviewing this guide and providing direction on completing it. iv Controlling Spam.qxd 8/24/2004 9:41 AM Page v Table of Contents Introduction ..............................................................................1 Disclaimer.............................................................................2 Beauty of the Inbox ...................................................................5 E-mail Issues and Statistics ......................................................11 E-mail Design Leads to Simplicity for Users and Spammers .........................................................11 Identifying the Cost of Spam...............................................12 Infrastructure Costs of Spam ...............................................13 Spam and Viruses................................................................15 Phishing With Spam ...........................................................16 The Legal Impacts of Inappropriate Spam ..........................18 Spam Statistics ....................................................................18 Legislative Solutions ................................................................22 Defining Spam....................................................................22 United States Spam Legislation ...........................................23 Antispam Legislation Around the World .............................26 Lists, Lists, and More Lists ......................................................29 Real-Time Block Lists .........................................................29 White Lists..........................................................................32 Understanding Filtering Options.............................................34 Rules-Based, Collaborative, and Bayesian Filtering..............34 External Filtering Services ...................................................38 The Future of Fighting Spam ..............................................39 People, Policies, and Procedures ..............................................41 Planning Your Organization’s Antispam Response ...................45 Selecting an Antispam Solution...........................................46 Individuals ..........................................................................47 v Controlling Spam.qxd 8/24/2004 9:41 AM Page vi Internal Business Solutions..................................................49 External Solutions Providers................................................50 Evaluating Products.............................................................51 Antispam Resources.................................................................53 Glossary...................................................................................55 vi Controlling Spam.qxd 8/24/2004 9:41 AM Page 1 Introduction E-mail has become a mission-critical tool used by virtually every business and individual to communicate today. Nevertheless, some of the very features that make e-mail such a successful com- munication medium are now slowly draining its effectiveness. Unsolicited e-mail and dangerous attachments are clogging up inboxes and threatening the security of the computers receiving them. We are talking about the capacity of spam and virus-in- fested attachments to waste individual and organizational time, and erode productivity. This guide is designed to help you better understand the issue and share solutions that will help you regain control of your inbox. It is divided into the following sections: • “Beauty of the Inbox” outlines the fundamental value of e- mail and other integrated tools in making users more pro- ductive. This section also describes tips and tricks to optimize the way individuals and organizations use e-mail. • “E-mail Issues and Statistics” describes spam and other is- sues affecting productivity including current benchmarks on spam proliferation. This section describes why spam is so difficult to address, and why organizations must take a number of different approaches to combat it successfully. • “Legislative Solutions” explains that spam is not just a North American issue; it is a worldwide problem that is being exacerbated