An Online Assessment of University Spam Education Web sites

Luke Haber, Team Leader- Client Support, Information Technology and Telecomunications Services, Southern Cross University. Email: luke.haber(AT)scu.edu.au

Allan Ellis, Associate Professor, School of Comerce and Management, Southern Cross University. Email: allan.ellis(AT)scu.edu.au

Keywords

spam, spam education, spam awareness, bulk e-mail, email, e-mail, Web site

Abstract

Spam is a problem for any organisation that has an e-mail address. Universities provide their own mail systems and create thousands, even tens of thousands, of e-mail addresses and as a result, receive large amounts of spam. Many users hit the delete key for every spam message received. This can be a frustrating and time-consuming task. It is the University's obligation to protect users e-mail accounts from potential threats like spam and inform users of potential risks.

While technical controls can block spam and Anti-Virus products can quarantine suspect attachments, user education and awareness is also required to reduce user interaction with spam. User education and awareness can play a major role in the fight against spam. Spam is as much a social problem as it is a technical one.

Education through an informative Web site is an effective method of raising the awareness for users, improving their understanding of the problem and therefore altering their behavior towards spam and potential spam sites. This paper evaluates Australian University Web sites on spam information and education they contain and recommends a framework for designing a spam education Web site.