Asian Earthquake Possibly Dropped Spam Levels

The recent earthquake in Asia may be a significant reason for the drop in spam levels in January 2007. A research by hosting firm IE Internet shows that spam rate declined by 10 percent during last month. It also revealed that prosperous spammers from China and South Korea are no longer 'major sources of spam'.

According to the new research, a quake at a level of 7.1 on the Richter scale caused severe damage to nearly eight submarine fiber-optic cables in the deep sea of Bashi Channel connecting Taiwan and the Philippines. This further resulted in shattering of Internet and telephone networks in Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Japan and South Korea.

Spam watchers and connoisseurs who are keen about the nefarious activities in the inboxes would be aware that China and Korea belong to the above list. They will also realize that the quake's destruction of the telecommunications infrastructure has taken these countries off the list of 'major spam sources' for the first time in history.

Moreover, the month of January this year has witnessed a 3 percent decline in the number of viruses. Nevertheless, the firm has cautioned that this decline does not necessarily mean a lower risk of systems being infected.

The study also says that more than a quarter of total spam that entered 35,000 IE Internet-monitored Irish business inboxes tracked to the U.S. last month. However, Russia and Brazil were also major originators of spam.

Security firm SoftScan also released a research in January 2007 that indicated lower spam rates for the month. But it said virus levels spiked to 50 percent during the same time.

According to predictions of Phelim O-Connell, managing director of IE Internet, although there has been a significant drop in spam in January, it will tend to rise in the long run. Phelim has cautioned e-mail users about large number of new viruses that international spam rings are creating and releasing.

According to estimates of IE Internet, about 12 percent of e-mails were virus laden in January 2007. The most prevalent was Zafi.B. The others in order were W32 variants: Warezov.gen!W32DL and Mytob.CQ.

Related article: ACMA Unleashes SpamMATTERS - the New anti-spam Button

» SPAMfighter News - 2/12/2007