Spammers appear to be more concerned about our health than our wealth, as the number of spam emails continue to rise, according to a recent report.
Internet security provider Marshal has released the findings of its latest Threat Research and Content Engineering report for the second half of 2007, which found that the total volume of spam increased by more than 50 per cent.
Spam promoting pharmaceuticals, such as weight loss pills, was the dominant category in 2007, comprising nearly 70 per cent of all spam.
Telstra, Google in spam spat – Security – Technology – smh.com.au
Telstra BigPond has slammed Googles spam fighting credentials, claiming the Gmail team was not proactive enough in monitoring spam sent by its users.
The scathing comments came after some of Googles mail servers were blacklisted by BigPond for being used to distribute spam.
The blacklisting resulted in BigPond customers being unable to receive emails originating from some Gmail accounts.
According to comScore Media Metrix, Gmail is the third largest free email provider – behind Yahoo Mail and Windows Live Mail – with 51 million users worldwide. It is unclear how many of these accounts were blocked by BigPond.
Read the full story Telstra, Google in spam spat – Security – Technology – smh.com.au
Chinese spammers go quiet – Security – Technology – smh.com.au
The amount of spam originating from China dropped dramatically in the first three months of the year, according to a US IT security firm.
In the period from January to March, China accounted for 7.5 per cent of all worldwide spam, Boston-based Sophos said in a statement. This compared with 21.9 percent in the year-earlier period, according to previous Sophos data.
“China, who until recently was an intimate rival to the US, dropped dramatically during the last quarter,” said Carole Theriault, a senior security consultant at Sophos.
No immediate explanation was provided in the statement as to why spam had declined from China, otherwise seen as a spam superpower.
Read the full story Chinese spammers go quiet – Security – Technology – smh.com.au
