Book Review
by David Michel

Degunking Your Email, Spam, and Viruses
By Jeff Duntemann
Paraglyph Press; Scottsdale, Arizona, 2004

Anybody who uses the Internet or e-mail, hopefully, is aware of the dangers and annoyance caused by spam, viruses, Trojan horses, and worms. Author Jeff Duntemann created the word “degunking” to mean defeating any of these nasty and unwanted problems.

This is a clear and detailed book that is easy for the non-technical user to understand. There are sixteen chapters. The first six chapters discuss choosing an email provider, good email habits, reducing the potentially explosive number of email messages, and organizing the inbox. The next four chapters offer solid and practical suggestions for fighting spam. The final five chapters give helpful advice against potentially ruinous viruses, Trojan horses, and worms.

Although discussing all of the author’s suggestions is not possible here, mentioning a few would be helpful. A very simple, but unfortunately overlooked technique against spam is simply to NEVER respond to it. “Unsubscribing” only tells the spammers that the user’s address is active, and the user’s spam problem will only become much worse. All email attachments should be scanned, and attachments from unknown senders should be discarded without opening them. The author recommends not using Microsoft Outlook because the spammers and hackers target that program more than any other e-mail program. Installing and using anti-viral software and firewalls to stop worms are mandatory.

Implementing the author’s suggestions will give users the peace of mind to use the Internet and email safely. It is highly recommended.