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Spam Containing Malware Up In September
Mike Sachoff
Staff Writer
2009-10-12
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During the month of September, spam averaged slightly over 86 percent of all email messages, according to Symantec's monthly "State of Spam" report.
 | | Spam Containing Malware Up In September |  |
During the month the percentage of spam containing malware increased, reaching up to 4.5 percent of all spam at one point. When compared to August, Symantec said it detected a nine-fold increase in spam containing malware during September.
In September the most common subject lines used by spammers were dominated by subjects that included "Delivery Status Notification" (Failure), "Return Mail," and "Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender."
The prominence of these subject lines corresponded with an increase in NDR bounce spam. While NDR bounce spam continues to average 6.14 percent of all spam in September which is an increase of 0.4 percent from August 2009, it is the emergence of malware related subject lines including "Notice of Underreported Income" and "Thank you for setting the order No.475456" that is significant.
Globally the United States was responsible for 25 percent of all spam sent during September, Brazil was second with 12 percent, followed by South Korea at 4 percent, India 4 percent, Poland 4 percent and Vietnam also 4 percent.
"The nine fold rise in spam containing malware emphasizes how dangerously mature the spamming business has become," said Amanda Grady, Principal Analyst, Symantec.
"The traditional view of spam being a method of selling fake Viagra is gradually giving way to a more sophisticated approach, which uses malware to harvest unwary users' computers time and time again for personal details or hook them into botnets."
View All Articles by Mike Sachoff
About the Author:
Mike is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest ebusiness news.
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