Spam Volume Increases 50 Per Cent
Atlanta, GA, February 21, 2008 --(PR.com)-- Secure email and Internet gateway security provider Marshal has today released the findings of its second Marshal TRACE (Threat Research and Content Engineering) Biannual Report for 2007.
The report found that total spam volume increased by over 50 per cent in the latter half of 2007.
Health spam, promoting pharmaceuticals such as weight loss pills, was the dominant spam category in 2007, comprising nearly 70 per cent of all spam in the year.
While interestingly, Stock spam declined in the second half of 2007 to 1 per cent of all spam, compared to 50 per cent in February 2007.
“The decline of stock spam could be due to overuse of stock spam leading to declining returns to spammers or the actions of securities commissions and law enforcement authorities,” said Bradley Anstis, Marshal VP of Products.
New botnets surpass Storm:
The report also shows that several new botnets have overtaken the infamous Storm botnet as the largest single sources of the world’s spam. “Mega-D”, a botnet that heavily promotes male sexual enhancement pills, accounted for 32 per cent of all spam in circulation in November-December 2007.
The report also found that a new gang, touted the “Celebrity Gang” was responsible for 20 per cent of all spam during the same period.
Other key report findings include:
• The proportion of image spam declined further to under 5 per cent as spammers reverted back to plain text and HTML formats during the latter half of 2007
• Spammers experimented with new formats in 2007, including PDF, Excel, and MP3 file attachments, but these formats were short-lived
• Overall phishing levels remained around 0.5 per cent as a proportion of all spam during the second-half of the year.
• Major phishing targets remained the banking institutions. However, these targets changed every few weeks as phishers constantly sought new victims.
• The distinction between spam and malware became increasingly blurred as the spam-sending botnets sought to expand their networks by using email to ‘advertise’ the presence of malware on websites.
• There was a marked shift to using the Web to distribute malware, involving both hacked websites and spammed forums and blogs that were used to drive users to websites hosting malicious code.
The full report can be downloaded from the TRACE website
(http://www.marshal.com/newsimages/trace/Marshal_Trace_Report-Dec_2007.pdf).
TRACE data and trend analysis are continually updated and accessible online at http://www.marshal.com/trace/.
“Despite the increased efforts of law enforcement agencies to crack down on spammers and their botnets, spam and malware distribution became even worse in 2007.
“The cost of acquiring the tools and services needed to send spam is reducing and yet the financial motives of the cybercriminal underworld that sustains spam appear to remain strong. For these reasons, we are not optimistic that spam is going to recede in 2008,” said Anstis.
Marshal’s TRACE team monitors and responds to a wide range of Internet security threats and is responsible for the anti-malware defence and up-dates for Marshal’s suite of content security solutions.
About Marshal:
Marshal is a global leader in Content Security across multiple protocols, enabling organisations to secure their IT environment, protect against threats and comply with corporate governance needs. Marshal provides customers with a complete portfolio of policy-driven Email and Internet solutions that integrate content filtering, compliance, secure messaging and archiving. Forty percent of the Global Fortune 500 companies use Marshal security solutions to secure their corporate messaging networks and web against internal abuse and external threats such as viruses, spam and malicious code. More than seven million users in 18,000 companies worldwide use Marshal solutions to protect their networks, employees, business assets and corporate reputation and to comply with corporate governance legislation requirements.
Marshal is headquartered in Atlanta (USA) and London (UK) with further offices in Paris (France), Munich (Germany), Johannesburg (South Africa), Houston (USA), Sydney (Australia) and Auckland (New Zealand). More information is available at www.marshal.com.
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The report found that total spam volume increased by over 50 per cent in the latter half of 2007.
Health spam, promoting pharmaceuticals such as weight loss pills, was the dominant spam category in 2007, comprising nearly 70 per cent of all spam in the year.
While interestingly, Stock spam declined in the second half of 2007 to 1 per cent of all spam, compared to 50 per cent in February 2007.
“The decline of stock spam could be due to overuse of stock spam leading to declining returns to spammers or the actions of securities commissions and law enforcement authorities,” said Bradley Anstis, Marshal VP of Products.
New botnets surpass Storm:
The report also shows that several new botnets have overtaken the infamous Storm botnet as the largest single sources of the world’s spam. “Mega-D”, a botnet that heavily promotes male sexual enhancement pills, accounted for 32 per cent of all spam in circulation in November-December 2007.
The report also found that a new gang, touted the “Celebrity Gang” was responsible for 20 per cent of all spam during the same period.
Other key report findings include:
• The proportion of image spam declined further to under 5 per cent as spammers reverted back to plain text and HTML formats during the latter half of 2007
• Spammers experimented with new formats in 2007, including PDF, Excel, and MP3 file attachments, but these formats were short-lived
• Overall phishing levels remained around 0.5 per cent as a proportion of all spam during the second-half of the year.
• Major phishing targets remained the banking institutions. However, these targets changed every few weeks as phishers constantly sought new victims.
• The distinction between spam and malware became increasingly blurred as the spam-sending botnets sought to expand their networks by using email to ‘advertise’ the presence of malware on websites.
• There was a marked shift to using the Web to distribute malware, involving both hacked websites and spammed forums and blogs that were used to drive users to websites hosting malicious code.
The full report can be downloaded from the TRACE website
(http://www.marshal.com/newsimages/trace/Marshal_Trace_Report-Dec_2007.pdf).
TRACE data and trend analysis are continually updated and accessible online at http://www.marshal.com/trace/.
“Despite the increased efforts of law enforcement agencies to crack down on spammers and their botnets, spam and malware distribution became even worse in 2007.
“The cost of acquiring the tools and services needed to send spam is reducing and yet the financial motives of the cybercriminal underworld that sustains spam appear to remain strong. For these reasons, we are not optimistic that spam is going to recede in 2008,” said Anstis.
Marshal’s TRACE team monitors and responds to a wide range of Internet security threats and is responsible for the anti-malware defence and up-dates for Marshal’s suite of content security solutions.
About Marshal:
Marshal is a global leader in Content Security across multiple protocols, enabling organisations to secure their IT environment, protect against threats and comply with corporate governance needs. Marshal provides customers with a complete portfolio of policy-driven Email and Internet solutions that integrate content filtering, compliance, secure messaging and archiving. Forty percent of the Global Fortune 500 companies use Marshal security solutions to secure their corporate messaging networks and web against internal abuse and external threats such as viruses, spam and malicious code. More than seven million users in 18,000 companies worldwide use Marshal solutions to protect their networks, employees, business assets and corporate reputation and to comply with corporate governance legislation requirements.
Marshal is headquartered in Atlanta (USA) and London (UK) with further offices in Paris (France), Munich (Germany), Johannesburg (South Africa), Houston (USA), Sydney (Australia) and Auckland (New Zealand). More information is available at www.marshal.com.
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n2n communications
Helen Yeatman
+ 61 412 690 573
www.marshal.com
Helen Yeatman
+ 61 412 690 573
www.marshal.com
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