Thanksgiving e-mail attachments threaten to overload US business systems.

CORPORATE IT UPDATE-(C)1995-2005 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

Softalk, a New York-based messaging and collaboration software company, has warned that small businesses throughout the US could be under threat from an overload of e-mail attachments containing Thanksgiving photographs and video clips.

Small and medium-sized businesses are, according to Softalk, particularly at risk as they don't have their own large IT departments to manage and monitor their e-mail systems.

According to the company, businesses can protect their systems against collapse by imposing limits for the maximum size of e-mail attachments that can be sent and received, preventing employees storing files of personal photographs and videos on the server, and preventing users from sending or receiving certain types of attachment using the e-mail server.

In addition the installation of anti-spam and anti-virus filters will help to combat the threat of viruses posed by e-mail attachments, and the regular backing up and archiving of the e-mail database will also serve to prevent the loss of important data, Softalk said.

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