Daily Research News Online no. 3194 - Spam Costs Double in US in One Year Period

Spam Costs Double in US in One Year Period

June 11 2004

Nucleus Research has this week announced the results of its 2nd annual independent study researching the cost of spam to US organizations. 'Spam: The Serial ROI Killer' found that the average cost of spam per year per employee more than doubled from the previous year to $1,934.

For the report, Nucleus conducted in-depth interviews with employees at 82 different Fortune 500 companies - the same companies interviewed a year ago, along with IT administrators responsible for managing e-mail and other corporate applications. Some of the key findings in the report included the following:

The average employee receives nearly 7,500 spam messages per year, up from 3,500 in 2003.
Average lost productivity per year per employee is 3.1 percent, up from 1.4 percent in 2003.
Companies using spam filters report that on average they are able to filter only 20 percent of the incoming spam, down from a reported 26 percent in 2003.

'As spam continues to spiral out of control, so do the associated costs to organizations, and weak legislation has not had a strong impact on reducing the amount of spam clogging inboxes every day,' said Rebecca Wettemann, VP of Research of Nucleus Research. 'Filtering technologies are doing their best to lessen the impact and do deliver a clear ROI, but the exponential growth of spam limits their effectiveness. Corporations need to continue to lobby for stricter laws and join industry leaders like Microsoft and Yahoo to file law suits and make it unprofitable for illegal spammers.'

The company's web site is at www.NucleusResearch.com

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.