Silicon Prairie Cyber Services' Blog

The evolution of spam has been an interesting one. SPAM has gone from a wartime necessity to Hawaiian delicacy to electronic junk mail. Here's 5 facts about both types of spam. SPAM IN A CAN They invented SPAM in 1937 to use pork shoulder and provide meat with an unlimited shelf life. The name SPAM came from the combination of the words Spice and Ham. Hawaiians consume 7 million pounds of SPAM every year. Richard LeFevre holds the world record for eating SPAM by eating 6 pounds in 12 minutes. Hormel doesn’t use the term spam to describe any emails. Instead, they use the term unwanted emails. SPAM – ELECTRONIC JUNK MAIL The first spam email was sent in 1978 over APARNET. Bill Gates was the most spammed person in the world with over 4 million emails per day. Never unsubscribe from spam. It tells the spammer your email is valid, and you’ll get even more spam. 48% of email sent today is spam. Only 19% of people check their spam folder daily. Do you have an email list? With 48% of today...

LET'S TALK PRIVACY.   Privacy. It’s been on my mind.   Has it been on yours?   Even if it’s not top of mind for you I bet you’ve been hearing about it and thinking about it without even realizing it, and I’ve got TWO words for you.   AMAZON. APPLE.   Why these two words?   Amazon : head over to last week’s blog post and read the Top 3 Things You Need to Know about Amazon Sidewalk.   Apple : People who use Apple Mail are rejoicing in the added privacy coming in the next major operating system releases for all Apple products. Why? No longer can the bad guys discover if you opened their email. On the flip side, businesses with an email list are freaking out as their open rates will become unreliable with this same privacy feature.   How can this new privacy feature be good and bad at the same time? Keep reading for answers.   2020 THE SUMMER OF THE TIKTOK PANIC Do you remember last summer when everyone was freaking out about TikTok? I know it w...

    Have you noticed that in addition to sharing cybersecurity tips I also spend a like of time talking about spam and email?   Are you wondering why a cybersecurity expert is spending so much time talking about emails and spam?   Here's why...   Email offers TWO enormous opportunities. One for cyber criminals to wreak havoc and another for businesses to reach their clients.   You see, there are over 4 billion emails users across the globe, and 95% of them are checking their email EVERY DAY . This makes email a very effective tool to reach people. If you can get your message into the inbox, there is a prime chance that they will see you a...

Are you a list person?   Do you enjoy making to do lists?   Do you enjoy checking things off that list?   Or are lists your superpower to make sure nothing gets missed?   Me?   When it comes to travel, I AM THE QUEEN OF THE LISTS. Especially when I first started travelling.   You see, I didn’t want to miss a thing. Whether it was items I’d need on my journey or places to go - I had to have it all down. My packing list was embarrassingly long and listed everything out in painful detail. It didn’t list five shirts - it described each individual shirt on the list. [This was also before I learned the power of traveling with carry on luggage only so there was an outfit for each day!] I spent weeks and weeks researching places in guide books for THE things to see and do. I’d make lists and lists of the possibilities. Ranking my favorites as well. Then I’d organize the lists by location in to cram as much as possible into one visit. ...

Has this ever happened to you? You have this amazing coffee chat or discovery call with someone you’ve been looking forward to connecting with for quite some time. During the chat it becomes clear they're your ideal client, and they are ticking all the boxes of someone you’d love to work with! You share how you can help them, and they exclaim, "That’s fantastic! I’ve been looking for something like this. I’m in! Email me the details." Shortly after the call, you send over the details and then… CRICKETS You hear NOTHING back. No replies. No appointments. No payments.   You replay the conversation in your head over and over again.  You ask yourself, "What went wrong? I thought she was genuinely excited to work together... Why haven’t I heard from her?"   WHAT IF YOUR EMAIL GOT STUCK IN SPAM?   Maybe they’re not replying because they didn’t see your email. Maybe they’re not booking time with you because they didn’t know you emailed. Ma...

Have you ever wanted to throw your computer out the window? Your email goes missing. You forget your password. Your computer crashes. Sometimes technology sucks. It can be overwhelming and it can even break as many things as it solves. It can slow down as many things as it speeds up.   But, you don’t have to throw the computer out the window or stay stuck. I’ve been a geek and I've embraced technology longer than I care to admit. But, I've also had my share of frustrations.  There have been times when I wanted to wave goodbye or move off the grid when I’m having technology woes. The reality is, sometimes technology just isn’t working. You could be missing one tiny thing and it’s ruining everything while leaving you frustrated.   I'm here to help you investigate your tech problems and help you solve your case... and even prevent future problems too. (Psst, I'm FBI trained.)   So, if you're having challenges with... An email list with low open rates Emails getting stu...