Unwanted e-mail spam invades inboxes

Some students at IU have been subjected to SPAM in a can, but most have been victim to "spam" in their e-mail inboxes. Spam, or unwanted e-mail advertisements, have become a part of the computing life at IU.\nTerry Usrey, director of telecommunications for University Information Technology Services, says that IU is taking steps to block spam, and students should do the same.\n"There is a load of information about how to manage your e-mail through filters," Usrey said. "This information can be found in the (IU) Knowledge Base."\nUsrey said IU is weighing many technological options to filter spam in the e-mail system. One solution is to install programs to filter spam electronically.\n"We are considering an enterprise-scale filtering system," Usrey said. "We want to try to create options that are opt-in (choices), so people can subscribe to spam filtering. We have to define rule sets about how filtering would work, and we can't set them for everyone."\nIU currently has the capability to eliminate one hazard that some spammers use.\nUsrey said that IU can now identify false e-mail headers saying that they came from an IU site rather than an advertiser's site. This technology will prevent people from opening e-mail that is disguised as IU related, but really spam e-mail.\nSenior Matthew Braunstein is a member of the Computer Information Systems club, and he offers tips to students about how to avoid spam.\n"Spam can include many viruses, along with pop-up generators that can cause your system to crash," Braunstein said. \nPop-up generators randomly show ads on your computer.\nPrograms called spyware hidden in e-mail spam can also adversely affect a computer, causing them to be unable to access secure Web sites, such as INSITE or IU Webmail.\nWhen responding to contest sign-ups or buying things online, Braunstein advises not to give away important e-mail addresses. Companies or Web sites you voluntarily sign up to may sell their e-mail lists to other companies so they can send you ads.\n"My recommendation would be to set up a Hotmail account"