Commtouch's graph of international spam activity from August to December 2010
(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Messaging and Web security provider Commtouch (www.commtouch.com) announced on Thursday that its latest study showed a 30 percent drop in spam sent during the fourth quarter of 2010.
The significant decrease in spam continues an ongoing trend in decreasing spam levels following the September closure of Spamit, which is allegedly behind a fair percentage of the world’s pharmacy spam.
According to reports in October, the reasons for the sudden “voluntary” closure were related to charges brought against the individuals behind Spamit.
There was also a further drop in the amounts of spam sent during the fourth quarter with Decemberresults averaging about 30 percent less than September’s.
The average spam level for the quarter saw a slight decrease from 88 percent in the third quarter to 83 percent in the fourth quarter. The beginning of December saw a low of nearly 74 percent.
The nature of the spam attacks has also changed. The fourth quarter saw lower fluctuations in general, with the exception of two large outbreaks in mid-October and mid-December.
In the past, there has traditionally been large amounts of pre-Christmas spam. However, Commtouch’s reports show the outbreak was smaller than most of the large outbreaks this year.
Commtouch makes it a point to emphasize that it is “cautious about the long-term implications”, noting that “spam levels have decreased in the past only to return to even higher levels within short periods.”
Commtouch will publish the rest of the results from the study in its Internet Threats Trend Report for Q4 2010 at the start of January.
Last month, Commtouch issued a case study that detailed how it is providing outbound spam protection for Web hosting provider Hostway.
No related posts.
