Many companies falling down on the job for email protection

Friday, May 13, 2011

Some of the biggest sites on the internet don't do a good enough job protecting their visitors from online threats, according to a report released this week by the Online Trust Alliance.

The group's online safety honor roll recognized that 26 percent of the top public and private websites took aggressive security measures, but this means that 74 percent failed to make the grade.

"While the level of adoption is failing to adequately protect consumers, the commitment and growth within the public and private sectors is encouraging. Government and business leaders need to commit to these guidelines to help prevent a consumer trust meltdown and protect the vitality of the U.S. economy," said OTA executive director Craig Spiezle.

In particular, the group noted that more companies and government offices should adopt email authentication technology to cut down on malicious spam.

Integrating email protection technology into existing managed security services may help IT staff use it to their best advantage. Hopefully, such measures can make a significant dent in the volume of malicious emails sent every day.