Just about anybody with an email address knows about spam and
spam filters—or at least they think they do. However, it is a complex
subject, with far more to it than meets the eye.
The word "spam" is sometimes used narrowly to describe just commercial advertisements for products and services. This definition is dubbed UCE: unsolicited commercial email. However, spam is more frequently used to describe any unsolicited email that is sent in bulk. Therefore, we prefer the definition UBE: unsolicited bulk email. This broader definition includes viruses by email, phishing, and other email-borne threats.
Read this Ferris Research white paper to take a closer look at spam: what it is, how it is sent, and how it is filtered. This paper unravels the complexities and gives an accessible, factual overview into the scourge of spam.
