I was reading “The last line of defense against spam!” but it should be titled “The last line of defense against Viruses and Spam”. I have said for years that the last line of defense against Spam and Viruses is the end user. With proper training we would not need half the signatures that are included in most anti virus products. There would be a huge drops in the amount of spam everywhere. There would be no reason for spammers, since there would be no money. Why do people send spam!
Botnets
If end users where trained correctly botnets would be reduced because they depend on infections to grow the botnets. Botnets would not exist and stopping spam from single sources is much easier than from a mass of sources. Most of the spam I see these days comes from botnets.
Spammers
If end users where trained correctly and didn’t click on and purchase items sent to them via Spam, this would reduce the amount of money spammers make. Without the money they couldn’t rent the use of botnets to send out the spam to begin with. If there is no money for the botnet herders to be made then they would have no reason to write the viruses that are used to create the botnet in the first place.
Viruses
If end users where trained properly they would not download untrusted software. They would not open attachments from friends they didn’t expect. The anti virus products would not need to include hundreds of signatures for viruses that are user installed.
AllSpammedUp said it best:
End user education is key to preventing successful spam attacks. Always consider end users as your last line of defense against spam. Implement training programs, regular communications, and an anti-spam solution that permits end user involvement in order to maintain a high level of awareness of the threat of spam.
End user education and training is the key.
