Extras from Symantec spam report

As reported yesterday, spammers are now creating their own URL-shortening services. Here are some extra bullet points, pulled directly from the Symantec.cloud report.

Spam: In May 2011, the global ratio of spam in email traffic from new and previously unknown bad sources increased by 2.9 percentage points since April 2011 to 75.8% (1 in 1.32 emails).

Viruses: The global ratio of email-borne viruses in email traffic from new and previously unknown bad sources was one in 222.3 emails (0.450 percent) in May, a decrease of 0.143 percentage points since April.

Endpoint Threats: The most frequently blocked malware targeting endpoint devices for the last month was the W32.Ramnit!html, a worm that spreads through removable drives and by infecting executable files.

Phishing: In May, phishing activity was 1 in 286.7 emails (0.349 percent), a decrease of 0.06 percentage points since April.

Web security: Analysis of Web security activity shows that approximately 3,142 Web sites each day were harboring malware and other potentially unwanted programs including spyware and adware, an increase of 30.4 percent since April 2011. 36.8 percent of malicious domains blocked were new in May, an increase of 3.8 percentage points since April.

Additionally, 24.6 percent of all web-based malware blocked was new in May, an increase of 2.1 percentage points since last month.

Geographical Trends:

• Russia became the most spammed in May with a spam rate of 82.2 percent.

• In the US 76.4 percent of email was spam and 75.3 percent in Canada and 75.4 percent in the UK.

• In The Netherlands, spam accounted for 77.5 percent of email traffic, in Germany 75.5 percent, 75.1 percent in Denmark and 73.9 percent in Australia.

• Spam levels in Hong Kong reached 75.2 percent and 74.0 percent in Singapore. Spam levels in Japan were 72.3 percent.

• In South Africa, spam accounted for 75.9 percent of email traffic and 74.8% in Brazil.

• The UK had the highest ratio of malicious emails in May, as one in 91.7 emails was blocked as malicious in May.

• In the US virus levels were 1 in 540.3 and 1 in 334.5 for Canada. In Germany, virus levels reached 1 in 435.9, 1 in 1,197 in Denmark and 1 in 330.1 for The Netherlands.

• In Australia, 1 in 513.5 emails were malicious and, 1 in 377.2 for Hong Kong, for Japan it was 1 in 1,164 compared with 1 in 706.7 for Singapore.

• In South Africa 1 in 178.7 emails contained malicious content and in Brazil it was 1 in 378.3.

Vertical Trends:

• In May, the most spammed industry sector with a spam rate of 80.2 percent was the Wholesale sector.

• Spam levels for the Education sector were 77.4 percent, 76.0 percent for the Chemical & Pharmaceutical sector, 75.4 percent for IT Services, 75.4 percent for Retail, 74.5 percent for Public Sector and 74.7 percent for Finance.

• In May, the Public Sector remained the most targeted industry for malware with 1 in 28.9 emails being blocked as malicious.

• Virus levels for the Chemical & Pharmaceutical sector were 1 in 305.9, 1 in 367.9 for the IT Services sector, 1 in 377.7 for Retail, 1 in 108.8 for Education and 1 in 313.5 for Finance.

The May 2011 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.

–Bill Brenner

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