Web security report: Q2 spam averaged 88 percent
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Spam levels for Q2 2009 averaged 88.7 percent compared with 74.5 percent for Q1 2009, according to the June 2009 MessageLabs Intelligence Report from security vendor Symantec. The global ratio of spam was 90.4 percent in June, reflecting no change since May.
Spam from compromised PCs, known as botnets, accounted for 83.2 percent of all spam in June. One of the largest botnets, Cutwail (also known as Pushdo), had resumed spamming just hours after the shut-down of the botnet's command-and-control server Pricewert/3FN by the Federal Trade Commission.
"Cutwail's recovery to one-third of its original levels, after only a few hours, highlights the progress spammers have made since the McColo shutdown in November," said Paul Wood, MessageLabs Intelligence Senior Analyst. "Spammers have learned the importance of having a backup for command and control channels."
The report also identified a rise in the threat of malicious links in instant messages, to 1 in 78 IMs containing links, an increase of .78 percent over the past six months. At the current rate, 1 in 80 IM users may expect to receive a malicious instant message each month.
MessageLabs Intelligence said a growing number of threats target the healthcare sector. Email-borne malware attacks targeting the healthcare sector have more than doubled since the start of 2009.
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