Spam Decline 40% during Q1-2012: Commtouch

According to the 'Internet Threats Trend Report' by Commtouch a security company for January-March 2012 (Q1-2012) published lately, worldwide spam fell 40% as against that of 2011.

In fact, global spam currently is less than 66% of the amount observed right before Rustock a massive-sized botnet was dismantled during March 2011. Notably, during Rustock's heyday, the mean volume of spam was over 150bn e-mails/day that at present is just 94bn.

Remarking about the above-mentioned interesting development, Chief Technology Officer Amir Lev of Commtouch stated that the continuous decline observed in spam mails from 2011 could be because of several reasons, including botnet closures or spammers getting increasingly prosecuted. Sacbee.com published this on April 4, 2012.

Nevertheless, Lev added that spam continued to be fourfold over the entire genuine e-mail traffic, with cyber-criminals reaping more-and-more earnings via other means, particularly malware associated with bank fraud.

Moreover, Commtouch on its end added that pharmaceutical-related e-mail junk grew yet again similar to the situation in Q4-2011 for acquiring an almost 39% level of total spam, increasing 8%-or-so above the earlier 3 months. Replica items based spam too grew during Q1-2012 at more than 5%, the security company further added.

Besides, in its assessment of spam patterns, Commtouch indicated that the e-mail ids, which were characteristically spoofed so that recipients thought the messages were from well-known and authentic organizations, associated with a dominant domain the 'gmail.com,' which was responsible for an unprecedented rise beyond 25% during Q1-2012. Other sources of the quarter's spam were popular e-mail websites like Yahoo and AOL, and social-networking websites like MySpace, LinkedIn and Facebook, along with the DHL.com domain.

Additionally, Commtouch stated that spammers were largely exploiting the current period of tax-paying in USA for attacking both taxpayers and tax-preparers through blended assaults wherein e-mails connected with an Internet site, which planted malware.

Eventually according to the security company, an outbreak in February 2012 was as huge as surely reaching numerous Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) in addition to numerous taxpayers. Perhaps recipients at large followed web-links out of great inquisitiveness, Commtouch indicated which cso.com.au published dated April 5, 2012.

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