Software Development Company Almost Destroyed By Email Spam
Hit by more than 7.5 million spam e-mails in a single day, the Melbourne-based Aged Care Software Group, watched in horror as the onslaught of spam crashed its Web server and almost put the company out of business.
This was just one disaster associated with its e-mail system, according to the company’s managing director, Ken Wragg.
“We were having all sorts of trouble with our e-mail at this stage. We weren’t getting any e-mail through in the end,” he said.
“It was a matter of fix it or go out of business.”
A software provider to the aged care sector, the company has 25 years experience developing systems for around 500 clients across Australia.
Wragg said the company has spent more than two decades building its reputation only to see it almost destroyed by spam.
“Aged care is a small industry - everyone knows everyone and if you’re not delivering it gets around by word of mouth,” he said.
The Aged Care Software Group has always hosted its own Web server but spam was crashing the system and Internet link daily.
Wragg said legitimate e-mail wasn’t getting through so the company couldn’t communicate with customers.
“A lot of our support requests and sales requests come through e-mail. If you’re not getting support requests in this game, you’re dead,” he said.
The company moved its server offsite hoping to solve the problem but the spam nightmare continued.
Wragg said the company was still receiving 200 spam e-mails a day even though a spam filter had been installed.
“It was driving me nuts. I think every spammer on the planet had our details. It was crazy,” he added.
The massive spam assault wasn’t just causing frustration but costing the business money. In fact, download costs were spiralling.
Despite changing its Internet plans several times to try and overcome the problem, it was costing an extra $400 a month in excess download charges.
“We suffered two hacking attempts that, if successful, could have been catastrophic for the business,” Wragg explained.
“We are a software development company with all our source code on the servers.”
Wragg had reached a point where he believed his problems couldn’t get any worse when his e-mail connection began to fail.
For six weeks, he said the company received virtually no e-mail. Then it was hit by more than seven e-mails in a single day.
“It was time to find a permanent solution and that meant a spam filter that could provide 100 per cent protection including Internet connectivity security,” he said.
After reviewing several options, Wragg installed NetBox impressed by its pre-delivery filtering system which blocks spam at the SMTP level.
“Spam isn’t downloaded so it doesn’t put pressure on the network; it blocks an average of 95 per cent of spam,” Wragg said.
“The filtering engine analyses the e-mail characteristics before dowloading it to a company network. The engine performs a series of eight high level checks using a centralised database of real time feeds from NetBox Blue’s global network of data centres and honeypots.”
Wragg said the company is still being hit by a whopping five million spam e-mails per month but it is blocked and there are no more excess download charges.
More importantly, he said the company is enjoying 100 per cent e-mail and Internet connectivity.
NetBox Blue chairman, John Fison, said the massive amount of spam bombarding Aged Care Software is not uncommon.
He said blocking spam at the SMTP level is vital to prevent crashing the network and inflicting crippling download costs.
“Download costs can climb into the thousands if spam is downloaded first and then filtered,” he said.
“We are seeing dramatic increases in spam across the world. Our expectation from the global trends is that spam will only increase and we can offer customers dynamic IP reputation black listing and real time zombie host detection systems along with our pre-delivery filtering technology.”