India Stays at 2nd Place in Sending Spam

A study by Trend Micro reveals that India continues to occupy the second place in terms of spam generation, accounting for nearly 12.55% of the total junk mails in July 2010, even after decreasing the volume of mails sent.

Moreover, the study has disclosed that the USA has retained its first place as the king of spam distributing almost one-fourth of the world's total junk mails and Brazil stuck to its third position with 12%.

Further, the report reveals that although India has posted a reduction in volume of mail sent, both the USA and Brazil have registered a rise in their spam numbers in the month.

Amit Nath, Trend Micro Manager (India and SAARC), claims that user account details and credit card information yield huge profits for hackers. Hackers continued to exploit the rampant use of social networking sites, search engines and redirectors in July, as per the reports by Business Standard on August 26, 2010.

The report also highlights that attacks are now carried out by using three important vectors- file, email and Web. In terms of firms, HSBC has turned out to be the main phishing target for July via mail.

Spam level in India has been rising as the number of spam attacks increase with each passing day. Besides Trend Micro, Symantec also disclosed in its latest report that India holds 2nd rank in originating spam, accounting for 6% to the worldwide spam levels.

The report reveals that malware represented nearly 12% of all spam, and the total spam at 89% of overall messages in June 2010.

Mr. Shantanu Ghosh, Vice-President (Product Operations), Symantec India, stated that they had noticed the transitional phase of spam and phishing attacks in 2010. From using Government as lure in the beginning of 2010 to capitalizing Indians' fixation over films and sports, hackers have tried everything and remained ahead, as per the reports by istockanalyst on August 20, 2010.

Related article: India Remains an Easy Target for Hackers in '06

» SPAMfighter News - 8/30/2010