Spam Rampage to Cost Corporate High in Bandwidth & Security

A research study by The European Network and Information Security Agency, or 'Enisa', indicates that although only a few spam mails reach users' inboxes, yet the threat from it to corporate bandwidth and security costs high. And since the absolute volume of spam is increasing, this cost for corporate is also increasing. ComputerWeekly reported this on February 25, 2008.

The report from Enisa also revealed that since merely 6% of total e-mail actually land up in inboxes, the general public thinks the situation is under control. But in reality, spam is expanding in size, quantity, and bandwidth and continues to be an expensive problem.

Enisa found that broadband intrusion in Europe at present is 30%, twice as many as of last year (2007). Also, with its continuous spread, threats like spam bots have taken up critical proportions following the additional speed and power these bots acquire to distribute malware. According to an independent global non-profit organization called Internet Society, about 20%, i.e. 1.32 Billion, people around the world today have Internet access leading to growth in broadband access.

The report further said that antivirus firms and e-mail providers consistently reported that spam comprised about 80% of total Internet traffic. As traffic on the Internet increases, the volume of spam mails also increases, it noted.

But according to the report, only 44% of the Internet providers isolated computers affected with spam. A similar rate of providers relies on sink holing and black holing to ensure their services are secured. No provider analyzed in the research implemented DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC), which adds security to the Domain Name System (DNS). Of 10 providers, four rely on traffic shaping for security.

Enisa's study also found that there filtered outgoing traffic as well as filtered incoming traffic through every ISP (Internet Service Provider) surged by 46% and 15% respectively in 2007 from 2006.

Besides, every ISP's published contact details for users to report security violations also went up 50%. In 2007, providers identified spam by depending largely on client complaints. This year, they are also proactively monitoring increments in spam traffic.

Related article: Spam Scam Bags a Scottish Connection

» SPAMfighter News - 3/3/2008