Botnets Keep Spam Levels Rising up
By Luciana on July 3, 2009 | Spam and email, spam, email, statistics, botnets
MessageLabs, one of security research companies, reported 90.4% of email messages being spam. The levels were reached in May and remained the same in June. This is the highest number since 2007.
While the levels of spam traffic rarely drop, the new boom concerns security researchers. Contrary to 2007 situation, the 83% of spam messages are generated by botnets. Hacked email accounts and mail servers are responsible for the rest of junk mail.
Botnet spam is a serious problem because the botnets effectively distribute the spam in large amounts. They usually run undetected by security tools and unnoticed by users. This way botnets can deliver spam massively without raising suspicion. The other reason to be concerned is the purpose of most of the spam emails.
Although the topic and the wording of spam emails differ from Iran election newsletter to Microsoft update notification, the most majority of such messages are meant to infect recipient’s computer. But the ultimate goal is gaining some money by either stealing personal data (including credit card details) or by directing people into fraudulent deals.
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