Today's Security Fix

Spam levels reach new heights

In case you haven't opened your inbox lately, reports are saying that spam is at an all-time high.

McAfee says that spam volumes have increased by 141 percent since March. Spam now accounts for 92 percent of all e-mail sent, which makes it a wonder that anyone ever gets anything done over e-mail.

McAfee's second-quarter report puts spam levels a bit higher than reports from Google and MessageLabs earlier this month, which said spam accounted for between 89 percent and 90 percent of all e-mail sent.

In any case, that's a lot of spam.

This spam surge shows that spammers may be down, but they're never out. Previous to the second quarter of 2009, spam levels had dipped from previous periods largely because an ISP called McColo, which was the source of much unwanted e-mail, had been shut down.

"If the economy could rebound as spam has done in second quarter, we would all be much happier with our retirement accounts," says the McAfee report.

The main reason for sending spam is no longer to sell Viagra or to phish financial information, but to spread botnets, says McAfee, adding that botnets have taken over 14 million computers.

Auto-Run, a particularly active piece of malware, infected 27 million files in a thirty-day period, the report says, typically through portable USB and storage devices. That's even faster than Conficker, giving Auto-Run the distinction of the No. 1 detected piece of malware in the world.

As its name suggests, this malware spreads without requiring any end-user clicking to activate.
 

Sign up for ITworld's Daily newsletter
Follow ITworld on Twitter @IT_world