Spam Traffic Increases in Russia

Chief of Kaspersky Lab Content Filtration, Andrei Nikishin, reveals that the share of spam in Russia touched 82.1% of total mail traffic during 2008, an expansion of almost 2.1% points from 2007, as reported by RosBusinessConsulting on February 4, 2009.

According to Andrei Nikishin, the minimum percentage reported in 2008 was 50.5% on November 13, 2008, while the maximum percentage was recorded at 97.8% on March 1, 2008. The Russian antivirus software developer's experts also said that the spam market was estimated around $150 Million-$200 Million.

As far as the subject matter of spam messages in 2008 is concerned, healthcare and wellness goods and services occupied the first rank with 23.6%, followed by education and adult content with 12% and 11.8% respectively.

The Kaspersky Lab experts claim that the spam is now being employed to circulate malicious viruses throughout the web. They also revealed that instead of Russia, China was the pioneer in circulation of such viruses during 2008.

Moreover, it is disclosed that apart from the conventional viruses which are aimed at destroying data on the user's system or the acquisition of user's private data, there are fake antivirus software that tell users that their systems are infected by the malware although they are not. These fake anti-viruses offer redemption from malware in exchange of payment.

In addition, the laboratory claim that Russian hackers are taking full participation in the promotion of the latest kinds of attacks and the advancement of techniques to defeat systems made to recognize and defeat such attacks.

The report also informs that the number of such attacks increased tremendously during 2008. Evidently, the number of malicious viruses multiplied 300% last year.

The experts also predicted that during the 2009, the scenario might change as the competition between makers of harmful programs and services would become more intense with the deepening of global economic crisis and the development of cyber crime market.

Therefore, it is assumed that the volume of spam messages will expand in 2009 and shows that spam of a criminal nature will among the top rankers.

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» SPAMfighter News - 2/24/2009