Internet Security Learning Center

90 Percent of E-Mail Will Be Spam by Year's End

A report by Marshal's Threat Research and Content Engineering Team said that a surge of spam from China and South Korea caused a 30 percent jump in spam levels, increasing 280 percent since last October, raising spam to its highest volume ever. Marshal's Bradley Anstis said about 85 percent of all emails received are now spam, and at least 90 percent of all emails will be spam by the end of 2007 if the current increases in spam volume continue. Symantec's monthly spam report showed that pornographic spam decreased from 22 percent of spam messages during the first half of last year to 4 percent in January. The same report said that "pump-and-dump" messages increased from 15 percent of spam messages during the first half of last year to 25 percent last month. Pump-and-dump is a scheme that promotes a stock with misleading and fraudulent spam messages, and after the stock's price has been inflated by unwary buyers the spammers sell their shares. Marshal analysts predict that spam will remain a significant security threat throughout 2007.

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