Spam Levels Expect to Grow More than 95% in 2009

According to the predictions made by security provider Barracuda Networks Inc., spam volume is expected to increase slightly more than 95% during the upcoming year (2009), as botnets continue to grow and spread malware, as reported by CLOUD COMPUTINGJOURNAL on December 16, 2008.

During an assessment of data obtained from over 1 Billion daily e-mails caught in Barracuda Spam Firewalls globally, it was discovered that spam rates during 2008 remained largely unchanged from the earlier year (2007), computing between 90% and 95% of the total e-mails sent.

While spam level in 2009 would increase due to several factors in addition to botnets, Barracuda apprehends increased spamming in coming months from nations that so far have not known for sending spam e-mails. For instance, Barracuda's list of ten most spam generating countries includes Brazil on second and Turkey on fifth positions during 2009, suggesting these countries are expected to be the greatest distributors of spam.

More interesting aspect, however, relates to the ranks that both these nations i.e. Turkey and Brazil hold in comparison to the usual spam suspects of Russia and China, said Barracuda's security experts

As per previous news reports, Barracuda discovered that identity obfuscation tactics were the most widespread within the huge number of spam campaigns launched in 2008. The utilization of free website hosting providers, the interchanging of fresh Web domains during a single campaign and hacked websites were the tactics played critical role in concealing spammers' identities in 2008, said the security specialists at Barracuda.

Meanwhile, talking about the way online scammers constantly change their spam tactics to attack more people than before, Stephen Pao, Vice-President for Product Management at Barracuda Networks, said that the company believes internet scammers would keep finding new methods to conceal their identities during 2009. This would lead to dampened relevance of content scanning as well as of the traditional reputation of the IP system, as reported by CLOUD COMPUTINGJOURNAL on December 16, 2008.

Nevertheless, concluding the debate, Barracuda Networks once again reminds users of e-mail to resist clicking on links in e-mails from suspicious or unknown senders, rather visit the websites directly by typing the address in browser.

Related article: Spam Scam Bags a Scottish Connection

» SPAMfighter News - 12/26/2008