Spammers Recovering Fast From McColo Shutdown

Google recently released its report describing the status of spam as well as forecasting the security threats for 2009. The report revealed that spam levels increased significantly in 2008, indicating the general trend of increasing attacks. Moreover, the report states that despite the fall in November 2008, spam rates rose 25% over 2007.

Statistics suggest that Google processes nearly 2 Million e-mails each day of which 45,000 spam mails hit an average unprotected user, a high from 36,000 in 2007. This, according to experts, indicates that the trend is likely to continue in future.

Meanwhile, following the shut down of McColo, the level of spam decreased significantly. Google states that while the overall spam level continues to remain low, it is vital to consider its relative percentage of growth. According to the company, since November 2008, spam levels have risen 156%. Thus, as spammers recover, the increased growth rate is likely to bring the total spam amount back to the same levels as before the McColo shutdown in a couple of months.

Google further said that in spite of eliminating a dominant source, spam continues to return. spammers are increasing their speed to develop decentralized and difficult-to-spot systems.

Furthermore, the last six months of 2008 had seen a 600% increase in viruses over the first six months of 2008. Most often viruses were bundled with genuine looking e-mail messages or were hosted on websites that users visited as they clicked on links in hoax e-mails. Thus, Google's assessment for the 2009 security threats warns Internet users to look out for viruses distributed through blended attacks that combine the Web and e-mail.

Moreover, Google predicts that malware and viruses would continue to a key tool of spammers to enhance their attack platforms. Despite low volume of virus attachments so far in 2009, the company expects that spammers would apply more efforts to rebuild their networks to substitute those lost during the McColo takedown.

Overall, Google predicts spammers would adjust to unleash new malware particularly viruses in 2009, while viruses and spam would remain unpredictable.

Related article: Spammers Continue their Campaigns Successfully

» SPAMfighter News - 2/9/2009