Spam Level Surged 34% in March 2009

According to security company MXLogic's new report 'Threat Forecast and Report', spammers increased their spam volume around 33% during March 2009. The use of bogus invoices became the most common way to infect end-users.

The report disclosed that the spam volume jumped 34% during February-March 2009. Moreover, in March, the most common form of spam was related to healthcare promotions in which some spammers made use of geo-location techniques wherein message content is localized with native language or specific interests of the recipients.

Meanwhile, the percentage of unsolicited e-mails out of the total e-mail traffic increased to 84.8% from 83% during February 2009, underscoring the fact that adequate security safeguards are required that might need the support of London IT.

Besides, there was a continuous use of social-networking websites to lure recipients to click on web-links embedded in the spam mails, according to MXLogic. Citing an instance, the report stated that the e-mails lately carried a link pointing to a porn film of a buddy named 'Amanda' to try and get users to download malicious software.

The report states that the company expects to have an increased number of cases using the above strategy, although there would be slight changes in the shape of fresh tactics of social engineering, or even changes in the volume of spam.

Furthermore, MXLogic also forecasted that there would be more Easter related spam mails that would lead all other themes till the vacation. It also warned that hackers would largely target Internet Explore 8 for malicious purposes to challenge Microsoft's assertion that IE8 is the most secured browser till date.

However, in spite of the steep rise in the monthly volume of spam, MXLogic's statistics suggest that there had been a healthier situation from year-on-year. While spam traffic is restoring from the dip during November 2008 due to McColo's shutdown, it has still to go far to match the spam volumes observed during March 2008.

In addition, security experts have lately been worried about Conficker, the virus that infiltrates Windows systems to steal personal information and passwords.

Related article: Spam Scam Bags a Scottish Connection

» SPAMfighter News - 4/14/2009