Homeland Security Chief Devises His Own Spam SolutionHomeland Security Chief Devises His Own Spam Solution

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff no longer has a problem with spam. Not wanting to be deluged with lots of garbage, Chertoff no longer uses e-mail.His conversion to Luddism started after Hurricane Katrina last year, when a deluge of overnight messages about levee breaches flooded his e-mail account, according to a report in U.S. News and World Report. "When people rely on e-mail chains, it can sometimes leave the decision maker unable to sort out good information from information that's just plain wrong," Chertoff says.

Plus, he says, "People sometimes will think you've gotten something that you actually haven't gotten."

Of course, Chertoff has something most of us don't: aides who monitor and sift through e-mails. Says the Homeland Security czar: "I rely on people communicating with my staff."