(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — The volume of malware has climbed considerably since the beginning of the year, and Trojans comprise nearly three-quarters of all malware sent by email, according to new research from German email security firm eleven (www.eleven.de).
According to eleven’s latest “E-Mail Security Report,” presented Tuesday, spam volumes remain at record levels, accounting for 96.2 percent of all email traffic in May 2010. The vast majority (87 percent) of all spam emails were pharmaceutical-related — generally advertising Viagra-like drugs.
One of the interesting trends eleven discovered in May, however, was spam emails containing multiple topics, such as a single email advertising both pharmaceuticals and watches.
Also, in April and May, spam distribution was spread much more uniformly among various countries than in the previous months, indicating that botnets are reaching more and more regions. Spam sent from US IP addresses led the geographic distribution of spam, accounting for 8.0 percent all spam emails, followed by Germany with 7.8 percent, India with 7.3, and Brazil with 7.2 percent.
Of all malware sent by email in April and May, Trojans accounted for 69 percent. In fact, since the beginning of the year, the monthly volume of malware spread via email has increased more than fourfold. The share of malware e-mail increased from 0.01 to 0.1 percent of the total.
Above all, Sasfis Trojan variants experienced a comeback and occupied the top three places among harmful software distributed by email, with the top position going to TR/Crypt.ULPM.Gen, with a share of 40.77 percent of all malware email, followed by HIDDENEXT/CryptedHIDDENEXT/Worm.Gen and HIDDENEXT/Worm.Gen;HIDDENEXT/Crypted.
A common feature of all three was that they were largely distributed in the guise of delivery messages — purporting to be from post and package services.
The eleven E-Mail Security Report summarizes current figures and trends on the topics of spam and malware six times a year based on analysis of spam and virus email checked by eleven’s Managed E-Mail Security Services. The company spans more than a billion emails daily and has a network of more than 30,000 installations worldwide.
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