It’s damaging when bona fide email is incorrectly identified as spam. This paper identifies the major costs involved, emphasizing the quantitative side. Understanding the cost of false positives is helpful when evaluating anti-spam solutions.
Table of Contents
Summary
Background
The Cost Model
__Model Overview
__User Time Checking Quarantine Email
__User Time Retrieving False Positives
__User Time Managing Custom Filters
__Administrator Time Updating Custom Filters
__Administrator Time Searching and Retrieving for Users
__Administrator Time Monitoring and Reporting
Observations and Conculsions
__Likely Range of Costs
__Comparing Cost of False Positives With Cost of Spam
__Cost of False Positives Can Be Reduced
__Administrative-Only Model Not Viable in Long Term
__Impact for Service Providers
Important Questions Answered by This Report:
- What is the cost of spam false positives for a typical user?
- What are the major components of spam false-positive costs?
- What causes spam false-postive costs to increase? What can be done to lower them?
- What is the larger problem? The cost of spam or the cost of false positives?
- What is the overall cost of spam false postives to US business?