RSA 2008: First Quarter 2008 Email Threat Report

Commtouch released its Q1 2008 Email Threats Trend Report, based on the automated analysis of billions of email messages weekly. The report examines recent trends in email threats such as the use of legitimate third-party web sites and email messages to cloak spam and malware content.

Highlights of the report include:

• Spam levels ranged between 60 and 94 percent of all email throughout the quarter
• Malware distributors and spammers found ingenious ways to hide their unwanted messages within legitimate or legitimate-appearing web sites and messages
• Spammers leveraged the high level of interest early in the quarter in mortgages, with mortgage refinancing spam jumping to 10% of all spam at its peak
• Holidays continued to be celebrated in spam and malware, with outbreaks in honor of Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day and April Fools’ Day
• On average throughout the quarter, 355,000 zombies were newly activated each day to participate in malicious activity