Spam Traps 95 Percent of All e-mail Sent Worldwide

According to a recent quarterly report released by Panda Security, 95% e-mails in circulation during the third quarter of 2010 were spam.

The research arm of Panda Security revealed that a majority of these were banker Trojans intended to scam web users into navigating to bogus financial websites so that the cyber-crooks can steal login credentials and passwords easily.

A large amount of this originates from botnets, and many users whose systems are being used to send spam don't even realize they are doing it, and hence committing crime.

Further, it was found that of the total spam received during the third quarter, 50% was sent from just ten nations, which included India, Brazil, and Russia. The UK, for the first time, has come out of the list of the world's largest spam-producing nations.

This quarter's result is no big surprises compared with the last quarter (Q2 2010). But the most interesting fact is that this time the United Kingdom has disappeared from the list. The UK must be taking measures to improve the situation that has helped them come out of the list.

According to the experts, situation regarding spam has not really improved. Cybercriminals are constantly looking for new and innovative ways of circulating spam to attack web users. So, the moment security solutions detect one kind of technique, cybercriminals invent new technique for malware distribution.

Furthermore, the use of e-mail in circulating malware that was once the most preferred method has declined. Rather, nowadays cybercriminals are devising social media-related infections, including clickjacking attacks on social networking websites like Facebook and infected search results.

To stop these growing numbers of spam Sebastian Zabala, Panda's project manager stated that, an increasing number of Internet Service Providers are blocking port 25 on their internet connections. Hence, if a user's system is infected with malware, it blocks the ISP from being employed as a spam relay, as reported by Info security magazine on October 01, 2010.

He further stated that in cases, where the client needs port 25 to be activated, like in case of business remote email, then the ISP will activate the facility. However, the ISP will work in co-ordination with the client to make sure that their computer cannot be used for the purposes of spam relay.

Related article: Spam Scam Bags a Scottish Connection

» SPAMfighter News - 10/8/2010