Despite the proliferation of anti-spam solutions on the market, spam volume has reached epidemic proportions, writes Dan Hubbard, vice-president of security research at Websense.According to the Radicati Group, spam accounted for 75 per cent of worldwide e-mail traffic in 2007, with this figure expected to rise to 82 per cent by 2011. Even with low response rates and better spam detection technology, spam continues to be on the rise because unethical marketers and cybercriminals alike acknowledge it as the cheapest method to reach the widest possible audience for lucrative financial gain.From a security research perspective, Websense Security Labs has seen spammers not only change their techniques across e-mail, but also using other forms of Internet communication. In addition to the traditional method of sending out spam over e-mail, attackers increasingly use web-based spam to post URLs to malicious sites within blogs, forums, in the “talk-back” sections of news sites and on compromised websites. This “link spam” lures traffic to infected websites and helps the purveyor’s site sit higher on search engine rankings, thereby increasing the risk that users will visit the compromised site. Earlier this year, Websense found that 65 per cent of all unwanted e-mails contained a link to a malicious website.
www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2008/04/17/230339/infosecurity-2008-spam-techniques-reach-new-levels-of.htm
Infosecurity 2008 – Spam techniques reach new levels of sophistication
According to the Radicati Group, spam accounted for 75 per cent of worldwide e-mail traffic in 2007, with this figure expected to rise to 82 per cent by 2011. Even with low response rates and better spam detection technology, spam continues to be on the rise because unethical marketers and cybercriminals alike acknowledge it as the cheapest method to reach the widest possible audience for lucrative financial gain.