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Spam Volume Increased by 10% from May to July

The latest e-mail security report for August 2010 released by a German email security specialist 'eleven' states that after remaining constant for the first part of the year (2010), the volume of spam increased by 10% from May 2010 to July 2010.

With a share of 96.4% of the overall email volume, spam stays at record levels. The leading spam originators in July 2010 were the USA, followed by Brazil and India. Germany slipped to the seventh position.

The company states that for the first time in June 2010, the eleven-research team have encountered spam mail that employs a new trick to avoid spam filters. For example, when the recipient clicks on the e-mail's HTML attachment, it starts a JavaScript which redirects the user to malicious page and opens it in the web browser.

The latest report also states that pharmaceutical e-mail continues to rule, particularly those promoting erectile dysfunction drugs. These e-mails represented the highest share of the pharmaceutical spam which in July 2010 with 73.1%.

Casino spam, which completely vanished in the spring of 2010 after the closing of many botnets, again reemerges. In July 2010, spam advertising online casinos climbed to 16.2% again 7.2% in June 2010 and only 3% in May 2010. Spam campaigns for duplicate watches stays at the third position with 5%.

With regard to malware, the amount of malware sent through e-mail continued to increase. Having represented only 0.1% of the overall mail volume in May 2010, it increased to 0.4% in July 2010. Most of this increase can be traced back to the Sasfis Trojan, which circulate mostly through mail disguising as messages from courier services and package delivery. The new report claims that Sasfis variants contributed 71.8% of the total malware in July 2010.

Besides spam and malware, eleven's recent report throws light on phishing. phishing attacks have increasingly being directed at online payment services, with the PayPal being the chief target. During June 2010, 96.1% of phishing e-mails detected by eleven were PayPal related. July (2010) witnessed extra mailings that tried to push credit card details.

Related article: Spam Scam Bags a Scottish Connection

» SPAMfighter News - 8/20/2010

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