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MessageLabs Intelligence September and Third Quarter 2008: Intercage Demise Linked to 8 Percent Decline in Spam

Posted on: Monday, 6 October 2008, 06:00 CDT

MessageLabs, the leading provider of messaging and web security services to businesses worldwide, today announced the results of its MessageLabs Intelligence Report for September 2008 and the Third Quarter of 2008. Analysis highlights an eight percent decline in spam since August due in large part to the demise of California-based ISP Intercage on September 20. However, MessageLabs anticipates this recent decline will be short-lived in anticipation of holiday spam season.

"Addresses on Intercage's network range were being used to host command and control channels for botnets," said Mark Sunner, Chief Security Analyst, MessageLabs. "In disrupting these botnets, the level of spam activity toward the end of September was severely impaired. But we don't expect this dip to last long. This time of year is notorious for increased levels of spam activity as spammers ramp up for the holiday season."

Also in September, analysis of MessageLabs URL Filtering service shows an increasing number of businesses are blocking employee access to inappropriate web sites, such as pornography, during the working day. Most policy rules are set by organizations to block this content between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. Further analysis reveals that 28.9 percent of blocks occur between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., which is usually lunchtime for most employees.

"Adult and sexually explicit web content accounted for 1.7 percent of all web-based content blocked in September," Sunner said. "This is a sign that organizations have caught on to the dangers of the web and are doing their part to deploy services that will protect their business from web threats while also maintaining employee productivity and maintaining acceptable use policies."

Other report highlights:

Web security: Analysis of Web security activity shows that 45.9 percent of all web-based malware intercepted was new in September. MessageLabs also identified an average of 3,660 new websites per day harboring malware and other potentially unwanted programs such as spyware and adware, an increase of 22.8 percent since August.

Spam: In September 2008, the global ratio of spam in email traffic from new and previously unknown bad sources was 70.1 percent (1 in 1.43 emails), a decrease of 8.1 percent on the previous month. Spam levels for Q3 2008 have decreased by 1.1 percent since Q2 and are at similar levels to Q4 2007.

Viruses: The global ratio of email-borne viruses in email traffic from new and previously unknown bad sources was 1 in 131.7 emails (.76 percent) in September, a decrease of .4 percent since August. In September, 6.3 percent of email-borne malware contained links to malicious sites, a decline of 11.3 percent since August. Virus levels for Q3 2008 are at their highest level since Q3 2007 and at similar levels to Q3 2006.

Phishing: September saw an increase of .16 percent in the proportion of phishing attacks compared with the previous month. One in 288.1 (0.35 percent) emails comprised some form of phishing attack. When judged as a proportion of all email-borne threats such as viruses and Trojans, the number of phishing emails has decreased by 29 percent to 45.7 percent of all email-borne malware threats intercepted in September. Phishing levels for Q3 2008 are now at their lowest level since Q2 2006, having experienced sharp declines since the beginning of this year.

Geographical Trends:

 --  In September, spam levels in Hong Kong experienced the largest     increase and rose by 13.2 percent to reclaim its place as the most spammed     country with levels reaching 79.6 percent of all email. Many other     countries experienced decreases in spam levels in September. For example,     spam in Oman fell by 16.7 percent, the highest decrease this month. --  Spam levels in the UK reached 66 percent in September, 68.4 percent in     Canada and 72.4 percent in the US. Germany's spam rate reached 65.4 percent     and 66.1 percent in the Netherlands. Spam levels in Australia were 72.6     percent, 75.2 percent in China and 70.6 percent in Japan. --  Virus activity declines across all countries in September, except for     Canada where virus activity rose by .31 percent to 1 in 81.9. The largest     decrease of 2.51 percent was observed in Italy. --  Virus levels for the US were 1 in 157.3 and 1 in 114.1 for the UK and     1 in 121.4 for Germany. In Australia, virus levels were 1 in 200.0 and 1 in     239.5 for Japan.      

Vertical Trends:

 --  With an increase of 1.07 percent, the Manufacturing sector became the     most spammed industry sector, with a spam rate of 78.7 percent. The largest     increase was noted in the Real Estate Agent sector where spam levels rose     by 4.09 percent to 71.7 percent. --  The largest decrease was noted in the Automotive sector where levels     fell by 14.66 percent to 68.9 percent. --  Chemical and Pharmaceutical sector spam levels reached 71.6 percent,     72.5 percent for Retail, 70.1 percent for Public Sector and 65.0 percent     for Finance. --  Virus activity across almost all industry sectors decreased during     September, except for the Non-Profit sector where levels rose by .07     percent and with the Real Estate Agent sector which bore the largest     increase of .14 percent placing the sector in the top spot for viruses. --  Virus levels for the IT Services sector were 1 in 134.3, 1 in 152 for     Retail and 1 in 244.1 for Finance.      

The September 2008 MessageLabs Intelligence Report provides greater detail on all of the trends and figures noted above, as well as more detailed geographical and vertical trends. The full report is available at http://www.messagelabs.com/intelligence.aspx.

MessageLabs Intelligence is a respected source of data and analysis for messaging security issues, trends and statistics. MessageLabs provides a range of information on global security threats based on live data feeds from our control towers around the world scanning billions of messages each week.

About MessageLabs

MessageLabs is a leading provider of integrated messaging and web security services, with over 19,000 clients ranging from small business to the Fortune 500 located in more than 86 countries. MessageLabs provides a range of managed security services to protect, control, encrypt and archive communications across Email, Web and Instant Messaging.

These services are delivered by MessageLabs globally distributed infrastructure and supported 24/7 by security experts. This provides a convenient and cost-effective solution for managing and reducing risk and providing certainty in the exchange of business information. For more information, please visit www.messagelabs.com.

 Media Contacts: US: Marissa Vicario MessageLabs +1 646 519 8116 Email Contact  Hill and Knowlton for MessageLabs +1 212-885-0552 Email Contact  EMEA: Paul Wood MessageLabs +44 (0) 1452 627705 Email Contact  Weber Shandwick for MessageLabs +44 (0) 20 7067 0500 Email Contact  APAC: Andrew Antal MessageLabs +61 2 8208 7171 Email Contact  Spectrum Communications for MessageLabs +61 2 9954 3299 Email Contact

SOURCE: MessageLabs, Inc.

Source: MARKET WIRE

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