Insignificant Spam Rates in August 2011: Symantec

In the Symantec Intelligence Report declared for August 2011, the global ratio of spam is shown to have declined by 75.9% (one in 1.32 e-mails was marked as spam). There was a total decrease of 1.9 percentage points against July 2011.

According to Paul Wood, Senior Intelligence Analyst at Symantec on his views about the level of spam, commented that there is a slight variation on the average rate for the period though the overall level is slightly down, as reported in scmagazineuk on August 24, 2011.

He further explained that some of the percentage points seem to be largely unnecessary and only huge change seems to be important that can be pointed out as spikes on the chart.

Reportedly, Saudi Arabia was spotted for being the most spammed geography (84.8%), China with (81.6%) spam rate, followed by Russia (81.1%).

Apart from the above findings, intelligence report of Symantec for August also showed an increase in master boot record (MBR) malware that infects the first part of a hard drive used to boot a computer. The number of new MBR malware threats was same during the first seven months of the year 2011, when compared against the number during the previous three years.

From the perspective of Wood, MBR infections provide huge possibility for in-depth infectivity and control of PCs, making the idea quite attractive for cyber crooks, as reported in computing.co.uk on August 24, 2011. However, the techniques of MBR infection seem to be a rather complex issue carried out by competent individuals.

Apart from all these, the latest report from Symantec also reveals about W32.Ramnit, which is one of the most recurrently blocked malware for August 2011. This malware is a worm that is able to spread through removable drives and by infecting the executable files. The worm also circulates swiftly by encrypting adding itself to the extension files like .DLL, .EXE, and .HTM. However, the report concluded on the statement that Ramnit worm accounted for 15.8% of all malevolent software that are obstructed by endpoint protection technology in August 2011.

Related article: Injection Flaws - Topmost Security Threat for Web Applications

» SPAMfighter News - 9/5/2011