87 Pct of E-Mails in Philippines Are Spam: Report

87 pct of e-mails in Philippines are spam: report

MANILA, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) — A total of 87 percent of e-mails in the Philippines are spam, making it the second nation in the Asia- Pacific region with the worst spam activity, anti-virus software firm Symantec said Tuesday.

The Philippines ranks second to Uzbekistan in junk mail proliferation in the region, which means that almost nine out of ten e-mails received or sent in the Philippines are likely spam, the Philippine ABS-CBN TV citing Symantec’s latest Internet ThreatSecurity Report said.

Other countries in the region with unusually high volumes of spam in e-mail traffic are Vietnam (84 percent), South Korea (83 percent) and Mongolia (82 percent)

Richard Velasco, senior technical consultant for Symantec, saidManila is now ranked third among major Asia-Pacific cities with the highest number of spam “zombies” or computers infected with malicious software that send out thousands of junk e-mail everyday.

“Manila jumped from 12th place to 3rd place in top spam zombie cities in the past six months because of the large number of computers infected with spam zombies,” Velasco said in a media briefing in Makati.

Increased connectivity and the proliferation of cyber cafes in the Philippines are likely causing an increase in “bots” or malicious programs that allow hackers to control computers remotely, said Velasco.

Velasco said most spammers are paid to send out unsolicited e- mails as part of synchronized attacks on specific domains.

Most small and medium enterprises in the country do not utilizesome form of anti-spam software, said Velasco, adding that the increase in junk e-mails could lead to increased costs for businesses as companies lose productivity while spending more on storage and bandwidth.

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