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Over 90 Percent of Emails That Reached Companies in Q3 Were Spam, According to PandaLabsGLENDALE, Calif., Oct 27, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- PandaLabs, Panda Security's malware analysis and detection laboratory, today announced that less than six percent of emails that reached companies in the third quarter of 2008 were legitimate correspondence. Moreover, 1.43 percent of emails contained malware. The data, extracted from a sample of more than 123 million emails and analyzed by TrustLayer Mail (http://www.pandasecurity.com/enterprise/solutions/trustlayer/), the anti-spam managed service from Panda Security, found the most frequently detected strains of malware during this quarter included Netsky.P, and the SpamtaLoad.DO and SpamtaLoad.CZ Trojans. % spam % infected January 76.27 1.84 February 87.83 3.08 March 86.51 1.32 April 94.75 0.88 May 94.71 0.97 June 93.35 0.87 July 90.43 0.98 August 93.01 0.99 September 91.89 2.34 "The percentage of infected emails increased significantly in September, to more than double the levels that we had witnessed in previous months. This could be related to the financial crisis, as cyber-crooks step up attacks to enhance their chances of success and avoid the effects of the economic recession," explains Ryan Sherstobitoff, chief corporate evangelist for Panda Security. PandaLabs found an alarming 91.77 percent of emails delivered to business inboxes were spam. This number peaked in August when more than 93 percent of mail traffic analyzed by Panda Security was cataloged as spam. Much of this illicit traffic was sent from computers infected with bots, a type of malicious code that allows cyber-crooks to take remote control of compromised systems. Once a computer has been infected, it becomes what is colloquially known as a 'zombie'. These 'zombie' computers, under the control of cybercriminals, are then networked together to form 'botnets' which are used for a range of malicious activities that includes sending spam. In the last three months alone, over 330,000 new zombies were activated each day. Top spam topics of the quarter included sexual enhancers (23%), pharmaceuticals (19%) and loans (12%). Subject Percentage Sexual enhancers 23% Pharmaceuticals 19% Loans 12% Replicas 10% Pornography 8% Other 18% New Spam Trends The third quarter of 2008 saw the expansion of the use of .swf (Flash) files to dodge anti-spam filters. This particular strategy involves including links in junk mail with interesting news headlines or erotic photos that then connect to an .swf file. The files themselves are generally hosted on legitimate websites but are actually designed to redirect users to the web this scheme were fake online pharmacies. Another popular scam that arose in the third quarter was the use of vertical writing and hidden characters to trick content-based anti-spam engines. The technique involves writing messages vertically instead of horizontally to avoid being caught before it can appear in a user's inbox. Also included in these emails is an additional message contained in white font that can only be seen once the user selects the content of the mail. For more information about the latest spam trends, consult the quarterly report published by Commtouch and Panda Security at: http://pandalabs.pandasecurity.com/blogs/images/PandaLabs/COMMTOUCH/Q3_Email_T hreats_Trend_Report.pdf About PandaLabs Since 1990, its mission has been to detect and eliminate new threats as rapidly as possible to offer our clients maximum security. To do so, PandaLabs has an innovative automated system that analyzes and classifies thousands of new samples a day and returns automatic verdicts (malware or goodware). This system is the basis of collective intelligence, Panda Security's new security model which can even detect malware that has evaded other security solutions. Currently, 94% of malware detected by PandaLabs is analyzed through this system of collective intelligence. This is complemented through the work of several teams, each specialized in a specific type of malware (viruses, worms, Trojans, spyware, phishing, spam, etc), work 24/7 to provide global coverage. This translates into more secure, simpler and more resource-friendly solutions for clients. More information is available in the PandaLabs blog: http://www.pandalabs.com About Panda Security Panda Security is one of the world's leading IT security providers, with millions of clients around the globe and products available in over twenty languages. Our mission is to keep our customers' information and IT assets safe from security threats, giving them the most effective protection with the minimum resource consumption. Every day, thousands of new malicious codes are created. To combat this threat, Panda Security has developed an innovative and unique security model which can automatically analyze and classify thousands of new malware samples. This model is collective intelligence and ensures that Panda Security solutions can protect against far more threats than the products of any other company. The exceptional detection capacity of collective intelligence can be put to the test at the Infected or Not website (http://www.infectedornot.com) For more information and evaluation versions of all Panda Security solutions, visit our website at: http://www.pandasecurity.com/ SOURCE PandaLabs http://www.pandasoftware.com |