Spam Volume Could Double in 2008

By Anonymous

This is probably not a surprise to Communications News readers, but spam volumes are growing-fast. Proof-point, a provider of unified e-mail security and data loss prevention solutions, has seen enterprise spam volumes rise by more than 50 percent during the first quarter of 2008, accompanied by short-term spikes of 60 percent or more. The company’s observations measure the volume of spam targeted to enterprises worldwide and represent an average increase across enterprises. Some enterprises have seen spam volume increases as high as 200 percent in the first quarter of 2008. Based on these trends, spam volume could more than double this year, continuing the trend of the last two years.

“Botnets continue to proliferate and are by far the dominant source of spam,” says Andres Kohn, vice president of product management for Proofpoint. “The massive computing power and network resources associated with these botnets allow spammers and scammers to constandy increase the aggressiveness and scale of their attacks.”

Proofpoint’s messaging security experts recommend that enterprises deploy both a combination of connection-level protection with highly accurate content-analysis features to combat growing spam volume.

“Enterprises today need to prepare themselves for two trends that will continue for the foreseeable future: rising spam volume and sudden, unpredictable short spikes in spam volume,” adds Michael Osterman, president of Osterman Research. “This means enterprises not only need highly effective antispam technology, but also effective capacity strategies that can accommodate sudden wild fluctuations in volume.”

Copyright Nelson Publishing May 2008

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