The Growing Threats to Email Communications in 2004

Email has become a critical function for most businesses. As email has grown in popularity as a method of communication so have the variety and volume of threats. Viruses, worms and Spam (unsolicited commercial email) have developed over time along with email use. The number of threats to email has increased to epidemic levels in the 2004 despite the industries best efforts to keep them in check. This paper will attempt to show how the threats to email communications have been getting worse in 2004, some of the new methods and tactics utilized by these threats, what changes have occurred in how we react to these threats, and discuss some possibilities in defeating these threats.