I've been writing a lot lately on the subject of Internet security and email. You'll find a couple of articles posted to the KISS Blog on our site, and some of what will follow is taken from those writings. I feel compelled to repeat myself because there are too many people who still don't get it, and they are unwitting accomplices to the evil forces in this world who engage in vile and tasteless business practices.

Each of you is receiving this newsletter because you subscribe to the service. You'll note we use Constant Contact for publication, and that has been the subject of past newsletters, also. Anyone publishing a newsletter who does not use a service bureau to do so is foolish, especially if they are using Outlook for the purpose. I know that might seem harsh, but they are part of the problem, not part of the solution, and they should have their Internet privileges taken away for a month.

We received a newsletter in our Massachusetts KISS office this week that has contributed to my ire. It was sent using Outlook to a mailing list too long for Thunderbird to display, and there were a lot more than 50 recipients. There was a single primary recipient, and then the sender had simply gone through an entire mailing list in the CC category. Shame on them. Let me give you five reasons why this is so wrong.

First, assured delivery. With the tightening of security by ISPs (Internet Service Providers) like Comcast, Verizon, AOL, ATT and others, an email with such a long mailing list will appear to be spam. The ISP's knee-jerk and automated reaction is likely to block delivery. The intended recipient will never see it in such instances.

Secondly, the ISP may add the sender to their Block List, meaning that any email from the sender in the future, no matter how legitimate, to any address at that ISP, is going to be blocked.

Thirdly, if the sender is on a shared mail server with other and unrelated domains and email addresses, all mail from that server sent to any address at that ISP is going to get blocked as well. ISPs block by IP (Internet protocol) address, and a mail server has its own IP address. Any suspicion by an ISP that someone at that IP address is spamming, and everyone goes out with the bathwater.

Fourthly, if your mailing's message is important and the intended recipients needed to know its message, it's very likely they'll miss out and suffer accordingly.

Finally, you'll have wasted your time, raised your hand in answer to the question “Who looks like a spammer?”, and contributed to ever-increasing Internet insecurity.

Well, gee, that's not the way it used to be, you'll say. . . . yes, yes, I know. Things change. A couple of years ago, spam was measured in hundreds of millions per day. Now, it's measured with a B as in billions (an estimated 2) per day. If you're using Outlook for your mass mailings, you are a part of the problem. Be smart, and become a part of the solution.

Follow-Up

After writing this column, I noticed a piece in the news worth mentioning to you. The online ticket system used by the Colorado Rockies for the sale of tickets to the World Series (GO SOX!) was shut down on Monday of this week. The following quote caught my eye:

"To our knowledge, the only people that had the 'page cannot be displayed,' were IP addresses that were blocked due to suspicious/malicious activity to our website, during the last 24/48 hours," said Alves. "As an example, if several inquiries came from a single IP address, they were blocked."

I heard a news commentator on the radio Tuesday morning refer to the problem as having an “external, suspicious origin.” I'm not making any of this up, folks, just to fill a newsletter. This is real. And, as far as I am concerned, the evildoers have gone too far now, interfering with the World Series. (GO SOX!)