Spam is way down, but new malware is really tough

Apparently spam is way down, but I don’t think so. That’s just old-fashioned e-mail. I think it just moved. I am experiencing more unwanted stuff on my social media and my blog than e-mail. The blockers on my e-mail(s) work pretty good. They’re not very good on the social sites yet.

Spam is way down, but new malware is really tough

Spam Hits Lowest Levels Since 2008 (Did You Notice?)

“A new report of security company Symantec says that global spam is at its lowest levels since 2008. The geographic center of spammed accounts has also shifted from Russia to Saudi Arabia. Worldwide spam is now down to one in every 1.37 emails. In the United States, spam accounts for 73.7% of all emails.

Spam levels are now the lowest they have been since McColo, a California-based ISP spam control center, was taken down in 2008. That is, in part, due to the shutdown of the spam-sending botnet Rustock in March 2011. Spam, phishing, viruses and other types of malware are all still major problems in the Internet ecosystem but it looks like progress is being made against the botnets and those that control them.

One of the most interesting trends to emerge from the June 2011 report is that pharmaceutical spam is declining yet the prefix “wiki” is increasing in spam messages. In some cases, the two have merged, such as the WikiPharmacy that spam messages are directing users to. Other major spam targets have been tax returns in India and fake aid to Japan after its catastrophic earthquake and tsunami in March. After pharmaceutical spam (which accounts for 40% of all spam messages), adult/sex/dating was the next highest category, with 19% of all messages.

The United States is also no longer a major generator of spam. Spam messages originating from the U.S. declined from 10.7% of all spam in 2010 to 2.8% in June 2011.

Spam may be at its lowest levels in three-plus years, but that does not mean it is dying out or is not a major problem. In June there were still 39.2 billion spam messages sent.”

Social Network Spam Surges, Security Company Reports

“Symantec says that 53% of social malware is being launched from botnets in the United States. This is an interesting find in comparison with the overall amount of spam that is sent worldwide, with only 2.8% of email spam coming out of the U.S.”

I wonder if spam has declined in correlation with the number of AOL dial-up users. (grin)

Stephen