Security Experiment Reveals Spam Threat
Posted on: Wednesday, 2 July 2008, 00:10 CDT
Security firm McAfee invited 50 people from around the world to surf the Web without using spam filters during an experiment to gauge the number of spam messages users from different countries could receive.
Participants from the U.S. topped the list with a total of 23,233 spam e-mails over the course of the experiment compared to 15,856 for Brazilian participants, who came in second.
Five representatives from the UK took party in the study. They received a total of 11,965 spam messages. The experiment revealed that UK residents are most likely to be targeted by the infamous Nigerian e-mails and "adult" spam.
Germany attracted the least spam, with only 2,331 unwanted e-mails.
Some 8% of the total spam received during the experiment was classified as phishing e-mails - messages that pose as a trustworthy source as a way of getting sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and bank account details.
The experiment proved that spamming methods show no signs of slowing down. However, the same could not be said for the computers of the participants involved.
"Spam is most definitely much more than a nuisance; it's a very real and fast-growing threat," said Guy Roberts, director of McAfee's labs in Europe.
"Many of our participants noticed that their computers were slowing down. This means that while they were surfing, unbeknownst to them, websites were installing malware," he said.
While the most popular target of spammers remains to be unsolicited messages offering pre-approved loans or credit cards, McAfee analysts said they noticed at shift away from mass spam to more targeted campaigns.
The UK, for example, is the most likely country to be targeted by Nigerian spam e-mails, where someone supposedly from Nigeria contacts their target to inform that they are the beneficiary of a will in a bid to extract money from them.
"Our participants came from all walks of life, from all over the world and, given their interest to take part in the experiment, they were well aware of the problem. Despite this, they were all shocked by the sheer amount of spam they attracted," said Dave De Walt, chief executive of McAfee.
"We can see from the experiment that spam is undeniably linked to cybercrime. However, it is such an immense problem and it's never going to go away. It's no longer a question of solving it but one of managing it," he added.
---
On the Net:
Source: redOrbit staff and wire reports
Related Articles
- Page Plus Cellular's New Text Messaging Plan Targets Heavy Users
- Abbott Employee Giving Sets New Records for Employee Participation and Total Donations
- Spam Attack Slams Firm's E-Mail Services
- Total Targeted for Hindustan Venture
- Wariness About Spam Leads to `Certified E-Mail' Service
- AOL and Yahoo Take Lead in Putting Price on E-Mail Paid Messages Will Get Special Treatment
- Spam's Noir Side Invades the Net Cybercriminals Are Targeting Organizations for Extortion
- Business Mobile E-Mail and Messaging Market Has Plenty of Room to Grow According to In-Stat
- Architech and CCMI Partner to Introduce Industry's First VoIP Customer-Experience Testing Service; Architech and CCMI Target Only 'Customer Touch Points'
- Survey Says Spam Erodes U.S. Trust in E-Mail
 |
 |
User Comments (0)
RSS Feeds