Images from the eleven report, illustrating spam volume and country of origin
(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — German email security firm eleven (www.eleven.de) issued its Feburary 2011 “E-Mail Security Report” this week, highlighting a short-lived decline in spam at the end of the year, as well as the “dramatic” re-establishment of botnet infrastructures and an increase in virus outbreaks.
According to the report, the extreme fluctuations in spam volumes that took place in December and January were “unparalleled in magnitude in the history of spamming since 2003.” Spam volumes decreased by about 80 percent on December 25, and remained at about that level until January 10, when they increased six-fold, reaching their previous levels by January 11.
The quantities of new virus outbreaks reportedly increased at the same time.
In its report, eleven says the fact the two events coincided indicates, first of all, that spam and virus outbreaks are related (an interesting, if not altogether surprising conclusion), and secondly that the decrease may have been a planned event.
“Spammers took advantage of the time between the years – traditionally of lesser importance for spamming – to rebuild spamming botnet infrastructures, better defend them against outside interventions, and to replace lost capacities,” says the report.
This was accomplished by sending out mass quantities of new viruses with the objective of infecting as many computers as possible, says eleven.
The dip, however, was also driven partly by the shutdown of several botnets before the holidays, and the termination of “spamming service” spamit.com.
A few other key trends included the USA remaining the largest source of spam, producing 11 percent of the world’s overall spam volume. Brazil was second, with 8 percent, and India and Russia shared third place with 7 percent each. Germany dropped from 6 percent in November 2010 to 4 percent as of the report.
Malware levels increased by 21.5 percent in January.
The full report is available online at the eleven website.
About Liam Eagle
Liam Eagle has worked as a contributor to the Web Host Industry Review since its inception in 2000, and as editor since 2003. He has been editor of the WHIR's print magazine since its launch. His daily involvement in the gathering and reporting of Web hosting news and his regular interaction with Web hosting leaders gives him an uncommonly broad appreciation of the issues and tends facing the business. Through his WHIR blog, Liam spots Web hosting trends and offers opinions on the industry-wide impacts of major developments and the motivation behind big announcements. Follow him on Twitter @liameagle
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