Recommendations for dealing with spam in the LAC region

01/06/2015

The LACNIC Warning, Advice and Reporting Point (WARP) has alerted the regional community about spam distribution in Latin America and the Caribbean and drafted a series of recommendations to deal with unsolicited email.

Large volumes of spam cause huge losses for companies that use the Internet, as they require large amounts of processing energy, system utilization and network bandwidth.

Graciela Martinez, Head of the LACNIC Warning Advice and Reporting Point (WARP), noted that spam has an impact on employee productivity and affects network performance, adding that it also causes financial damages, for example, due to the cloning of banking institution websites.

With this in mind, Martinez shared a number of best practices that should be followed to avoid being targeted by malicious online activities.

First and foremost, we must preserve our privacy by using complex passwords, avoiding simple words or personal information, and never sending personal via email. Martinez also recommends never sharing passwords in email messages –no administrator would ever ask for this information– and checking the privacy policy of any websites on which we share our information.

The Head of LACNIC WARP recommends that users protect themselves by installing anti-virus, anti-spam and anti-spyware software and keeping these programs up to date.

According to Martinez, a person must be sure of where the information he or she receives originated and think before clicking on a link or opening a file.

Whenever possible, LACNIC WARP recommends using separate email accounts, one for work-related tasks and the other for personal activities. LACNIC WARP also recommends that users keep an eye on their computer’s performance. If any unusual behavior is noticed, users should use their anti-virus software to scan the computer or call a trusted technician.