Would you credit it?

At Symantec we have a our Global Intelligence Network.  This comprises over; 40K sensors, a couple of million decoy email addresses, and then 150 million or so Symantec end-points. It allows us to monitor what is happening on the internet, second-by-second. One facet of this is, our monthly ‘State of Spam’ report that we publish.

Casting our minds back to June 2007, we reported that nearly 70% of all email sent was Spam. This was an alarming,  and at the same time, interesting trend.  One of the new tricks that helped fuel the increase was the use of, so called, PDF-Spam.  Here, the spammers had attached the spam message as a PDF file to help circumvent spam-filters.  New countermeasures were brought into place and PDF spam came and went.

Well, here in June 2008, the amount of spam is an incredible 80% of all emails. What gives?

 This is testament to the on-going determination and inventiveness of the spammers. Now, one thing I have noted in my own personal email account is the amount of ‘credit’ related emails that have flowed into my spam folder. They all follow a similar pattern: I have been ‘pre-cleared’ for a loan, or, ‘Get out of the red’ instant credit available to me.  The further twist is that you get them in week 2 or 3 of the month, on the basis that is when we are getting low on cash and waiting for the next pay day. So, the spammers have piggy-backed on the back of the ‘credit-crunch’ and hence the continued and unparalleled levels.  We see this constant ‘see-sawing’ from them using either technically or socially related means to keep pumping out the flood of spam.

Even the ‘credit crunch’ is old news now, we are seeing them switching to spams that focus on the fuel crises, with promises of discounted or free petrol diesel, gas, electricity. For those of you who want to read the full ‘State of Spam’ report for June 2008, follow this link. http://www.symantec.com/business/theme.jsp?themeid=state_of_spam

June 9, 2008 | Filed Under Market trends, Spam 

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