Regional & Vertical Spam Trends Released by MessageLabs for October 2008

MessageLabs, the leading vendor of Web security and messaging services to businesses around the world, released its MessageLabs Intelligence Report for October 2008 that highlights the regional as well as the vertical trends observed in spam.

The report said that in October 2008, the level of spam in Hong Kong dropped 1.4%, but the country remained the largest receiver of spam, with 78.3% of the total e-mail. The highest increase was seen in Israel, where spam volume rose 2.6% to reach at 67.3%. However, the largest decrease was observed in Singapore, where spam level fell 3% to 65.4%.

Furthermore, the spam level in US during October 2008 reached 71.9%, while in Canada, it was at 68.2% and the UK (67.0%). Spam rate in Germany reached 66.7% and in the Netherlands, it was at 66.2%, Australia (69.9%), Japan (68.0%) and China (74.5%).

Chief Security Analyst of MessageLabs Mark Sunner said that spammers at present are trying to capitalize on holidays and headlines to trick computer users who lower their guard during vacations. He further said that the spam in October 2008 could well be a boost for the coming months, as reported by EarthTimes on October 30, 2008.

Moreover, the virus activities rose 0.31% to a level of 1 in 88.6, the greatest increase in October 2008. A fall of 0.9%, the greatest in October 2008, was recorded in France where viruses reached one in 73.6. Furthermore, the amount of viruses for US was one in 253.0 and for Canada, it was one in 156.4. For UK, virus activity reached one in 85.3, while for Australia it was one in 241.8 and for Japan - one in 262.7.

The MessageLabs' report also highlighted the trends in spam as per the sectors and industries. According to it, with a decline of 3.0%, the manufacturing sector was at the top, with spam reaching a rate of 75.7%. The highest increase was observed in the engineering sector, which witnessed a rise in spam by 12.3% to 78.3%. And the greatest decrease was in the recreation sector that experienced a fall by 7.1% to 69.2%.

» SPAMfighter News - 11/18/2008