Proofpoint Reports Spam Email Trends for October 2007

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Nov. 14 /PRNewswire/ — Proofpoint, Inc., the leading provider of unified email security and data loss prevention solutions, today reported spam trends for data collected during the month of October 2007, finding that, on average, spam continues to represent nearly 90% of the total email volume received by large enterprises.

Spammers continued to experiment with new forms of attachment-based spam, such as MP3 spam, and continued to modify their distribution tactics. The volume of image-based spam, which had been declining in previous months, rose by more than 50% (to 8.07% of total spam volume) during October while other forms of attachment-based spam declined. PDF spam fell to less than 1% of total spam volume and Microsoft Word spam fell to 2.88% of total spam volume.

Spam Volumes Remain High

The Proofpoint Spam Index(TM) was at 89.04% in October, indicating that nearly 9 out of 10 email messages delivered to large enterprises were spam. The October index fell slightly from September’s index of 91.00%.

"While spam volumes remained fairly constant during the month, it’s interesting to note how the use of different spam techniques constantly shifts as spammers work to maximize delivery and response rates for their messages," said Rami Habal, director of product marketing for Proofpoint. "Spammers have built up a very diverse set of tools and deploy them in ever-changing combinations to try and exploit weaknesses in anti-spam defenses."

Shifting Spam Tactics — Image-based Spam Makes a Comeback, PDF Spam Continues to Wane, MP3 Spam Debuts but Remains Rare

Spammers continue to change their spam tactics in order to maximize delivery rates for their messages:

   --  Image-based spam -- which had declined slightly from August to       September -- made a comeback in October, with volumes rising by 57.93%       over September levels. Despite the increase, image-based spam       represented a relatively small percentage (8.07%) of total spam       volume.   --  The use of PDF spam continued to decline during October 2007. PDF spam       accounted for less than 1% (0.87%) of all spam messages for the month,       down 17.92% from September when PDF spam represented 1.06% of total       spam volume.   --  After rising sharply in September, the use of Microsoft Word       document-based spam (.doc spam) declined by 11.11% during October to       2.88% of total spam volume.    

The Proofpoint Attack Response Center detected the first use of MP3 spam-where the spammer’s message is attached as an MP3 format audio file-in mid-October. So far, the use of MP3 spam has been quite limited. During October, MP3 format spam represented just 0.06% of total spam volume.

"While the first MP3-based spam campaigns were noteworthy because of their novelty, they seem to have been a trial run," said Habal. "Spammers very quickly adopt new techniques if they prove effective, but they abandon ineffective techniques even faster. While it remains to be seen whether MP3 spam becomes a permanent part of spammers’ continually morphing arsenal of tactics, attachment-based spam is here to stay. We expect to see spammers experiment with new forms of ‘multimedia spam’ in the coming months."

Learn More about Proofpoint’s Industry Leading Email Security and Data Loss Prevention Solutions

To learn more about Proofpoint, register to attend an upcoming web-based demonstration of Proofpoint’s advanced email security and data loss prevention features. Proofpoint product experts demonstrate how advanced Proofpoint MLX technology defends against inbound threats-such as spam, viruses and phishing attacks-while also preventing leaks of confidential information and intellectual property.

   To register, please visit:   http://www.proofpoint.com/livedemo    About the Proofpoint Spam Index  

The Proofpoint Spam Index is a measure of the average amount of spam hitting the typical enterprise, university or government agency. The index is an average of actual spam volumes observed by Proofpoint systems deployed at a variety of customer sites, representing large organizations across a range of vertical industries including financial services, healthcare, higher education, manufacturing and business services. While spam volumes observed by individual organizations can vary widely, the Proofpoint Spam Index provides a useful baseline for monitoring general rises or declines in spam activity from month to month.

About Proofpoint, Inc.

Proofpoint provides unified email security and data loss prevention solutions for enterprises, universities, government organizations and ISPs to defend against inbound threats such as spam and viruses, prevent leaks of confidential and private information across all protocols, and encrypt sensitive emails. Proofpoint’s products are controlled by a single management and policy console and are powered by Proofpoint MLX(TM) technology, an advanced machine learning system developed by Proofpoint scientists and engineers. Proofpoint provides the most scalable and flexible deployment model including: hardware appliance, virtual appliance, hosted services and software. For more information, please visit http://www.proofpoint.com/.

Proofpoint and Proofpoint Spam Index are trademarks or registered trademarks of Proofpoint, Inc. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

Proofpoint, Inc.

CONTACT: Andy Murphy of Davies Murphy Group, +1-781-418-2408,pr@proofpoint.com, for Proofpoint, Inc.

Web site: http://www.proofpoint.com/