Spam News

Spam volumes reach all-time high, Tracelabs says

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Spam volumes have reached a new all-time high, surpassing the previous record spam level from July 2008, according to Tracelabs, the research division of web security company Marshal8e6.

The spam researchers said spam volume, which nosedived in November 2008 after the shutdown of the spam-hosting ISP McColo, have finally pushed past the previous high-water mark.

Lead security researcher Phil Hay said spam volumes matched the previous high from last year in June, "and now in July 2009 the spammers have punched through with a wave of spam to set a new record."

The Rustock and Pushdo botnets continue to send out the most spam and second-tier botnets like Grum have increased their output, Tracelabs reported.

Brazil led the Tracelabs spam statistics, sending out 15 percent of all spam, followed by the U.S. with 10 percent.

Not all spam research is consistent. Other recent research suggests that spam-sending botnets have a higher presence in the U.S. than anywhere else. Terry Zink, a researcher for Microsoft, said on his blog that the U.S. sends out 31 percent of all spam.