Harmful spam increased by eight times in Q3

As per the report released on October 27, 2008 by Sophos, it was found that the amount of mails containing malicious attachments increased eight fold in the Q3 over the same period last year (Q3 2007).

The report claims that between July and September 2008, one in every 416 mails had harmful links as compared to one in every 3,333 mails in the second quarter.

Also, the officials at Sophos said that systems running the Windows operating system are more vulnerable to infection and attack. The most famous attacks detected by Sophos are not made to operate on Unix and Mac O S X.

Senior Technology Consultants of Sophos, Graham Cluley, said that for the users of Apple Mac and Unix, the spam attacks only means clogging up inbox not an infected system. But hard core hackers are troubling Windows users to make huge cash, as reported by Nashville Business Journal on October 28, 2008.

Cluley also added that many users click on links without thinking and end up in revealing their private details to spammers who always search for personal information and bank accounts details. He also suggested that users should never open uninvited mails, no matter, how attractive they appear.

The report also indicates that the US based spammers constitute 18.9% of the problem. But, Russia has doubled the amount of spam, multiplying output from 4.4% to 8.3%. In terms of continent, Asia is behind sending 40% spam mails as compared to Europe which is 24%.

Further, this quarter report has witnessed three latest entries and Colombia and Thailand have acquired 11th and 12th ranks respectively. India entered the chart at 7th position.

Also, Sophos has recognized that increase in amount of spam is because of many large scale malware attacks launched by hackers in Q3. Some of the significant incidents include a.) The EncPk-CZ Trojan which appears as a Microsoft security patch b.) The Invo-Zip malware which disguised as a notice of failed delivery parcel from companies like UPS.

Related article: Harmful Codes are Spreading through Myspace

» SPAMfighter News - 11/7/2008