Symantec Witnesses Fall in Worldwide E-Mail Junk

According to its recently-released "State of Spam and phishing Report for April 2011," Symantec Inc reveals that the worldwide level of e-mail junk fell considerably on March 16, 2011 owing to Rustock's closure, the botnet that has been highly notorious across the globe, thus published Hardwarezone.com in news on April 21, 2011.

Specifically, Rustock's shutdown caused the worldwide level of junk e-mails to fall 24.7% on 16th March 2011 from March 15 the same month. Thereafter the levels dropped even further to 11.9% on March 17, 2011. During February 2011, spam volumes had risen 8.7% following which the mean rate of junk e-mails dropped 27.43% per day during March 2011.

Earlier during December 2010, Rustock's activity stopped tentatively and since then Symantec has been closely monitoring the general spam situation. So when on December 26, 2010, Rustock and 2 other spam botnets became inactive it was thought that spam volumes had declined.

But, in spite of the slackening of overall spam, there was a rise in junk e-mails having zip attachments by March 2011 end, notes Symantec. Each of the spam mails that Symantec detected was so spoofed that it appeared to be an authentic delivery alert alternatively a notice from a firm providing delivery services. Recipients of these e-mails were directed for viewing the .zip file carrying an executable to know more information alternatively finding the essential actions for the item's collection.

But if the zipped attachment is viewed, it results in malware like Trojan.Sasfis, Backdoor.Cycbot and Trojan.FakeAV on the users' computers. And despite security watchers closing down one botnet, it seems there are renewed efforts by spammers for building their malicious bot-networks yet again.

However, Symantec recommends certain tips for avoiding spam attacks. First, end-users mustn't ever view unfamiliar e-mail attachments for those may infect their PCs. Second, they mustn't ever answer a spam mail as such an e-mail characteristically spoofs the sender's id, while answering it commonly leads to additional junk.

Nevertheless, end-users can opt out from receiving the legitimate mailing. Specifically, they can de-select the products from the original list of items signed up that they don't wish to get now.

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» SPAMfighter News - 4/25/2011