September 2008 malware and spam geographical and vertical trends

September 2008 MessageLabs Intelligence Report highlights the following trends:

Geographical Trends:

• In September, spam levels in Hong Kong experienced the largest increase and rose by 13.2 percent to reclaim its place as the most spammed country with levels reaching 79.6 percent of all email. Many other countries experienced decreases in spam levels in September. For example, spam in Oman fell by 16.7 percent, the highest decrease this month.
• Spam levels in the UK reached 66 percent in September, 68.4 percent in Canada and 72.4 percent in the US. Germany’s spam rate reached 65.4 percent and 66.1 percent in the Netherlands. Spam levels in Australia were 72.6 percent, 75.2 percent in China and 70.6 percent in Japan.
• Virus activity declines across all countries in September, except for Canada where virus activity rose by .31 percent to 1 in 81.9. The largest decrease of 2.51 percent was observed in Italy.
• Virus levels for the US were 1 in 157.3 and 1 in 114.1 for the UK and 1 in 121.4 for Germany. In Australia, virus levels were 1 in 200.0 and 1 in 239.5 for Japan.

Vertical Trends:

• With an increase of 1.07 percent, the Manufacturing sector became the most spammed industry sector, with a spam rate of 78.7 percent. The largest increase was noted in the Real Estate Agent sector where spam levels rose by 4.09 percent to 71.7 percent.
• The largest decrease was noted in the Automotive sector where levels fell by 14.66 percent to 68.9 percent.
• Chemical and Pharmaceutical sector spam levels reached 71.6 percent, 72.5 percent for Retail, 70.1 percent for Public Sector and 65.0 percent for Finance.
• Virus activity across almost all industry sectors decreased during September, except for the Non-Profit sector where levels rose by .07 percent and with the Real Estate Agent sector which bore the largest increase of .14 percent placing the sector in the top spot for viruses.
• Virus levels for the IT Services sector were 1 in 134.3, 1 in 152 for Retail and 1 in 244.1 for Finance.