Spam Increases 50% in Q1 2008, Further Escalation Predicted

Proofpoint Inc., a vendor for solutions of loss prevention and e-mail security, announced on April 1, 2008 that the PARC (Proofpoint Attack Response Center) has observed a rise in spam to enterprises by over 50% during first quarter in 2008 along with short term peaks at around 60%.

PARC's observations determine the amount of spam sent to organizations worldwide and measure its average increases for those companies. Some organizations have found increases in their inbound spam to as much as 200% during Q1 2008. These trends, according to Proofpoint, indicate that the volume of inbound spam mail to enterprises would increase twofold or more in 2008 like in 2006-07.

Andres Kohn, Vice President of Product Management, Proofpoint, said that botnets are constantly proliferating and represented as the primary source of e-mail spam. He said that the Storm botnet, which is larger than any network of zombie PCs, expanded two times its original size in the holiday season of 2007, as reported by PRNewswire on March 31, 2008.

Moreover, the massive network resources and computing power that these botnets possess, allow scammers and spammers to continuously attack with increasing scale and aggression. Also, the huge number of Internet users freshly coming online all over the world fuel the expansion of such botnets.

In addition, the large amounts of present day's spam attacks could pull up the percentage of inbound e-mails by 500-700% in just few hours. This spurt of spam volumes could easily strain the infrastructure of the IT network to nearly a collapse.

According to Christopher Bolin, Chief Technology Officer for McAfee, spam is not only a nuisance but is a tool for scammers to steal business and personal data. As spammers become more skilled in crafting spam mails in regional languages, it gets harder for people to spot spam. So, it is extremely important for computer owners to realize the danger of using unprotected systems, as reported by SCMagazine on April 1, 2008.

While recommending enterprises, Proofpoint's e-mail security experts suggest, the deployment of protection systems on companies' Internet connection combined with highly accurate features for content analysis to fight the growing spam levels.

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» SPAMfighter News - 4/5/2008