The amount of spam sent worldwide has risen by 77 per cent in the past year, with hackers increasingly likely to ‘hijack’ company computers to spread unwanted emails, a worrying new report has revealed.Research by anti-virus firm MessageLabs revealed that a variety of techniques were being used by hackers to steal identities, defraud users and create hidden networks of infected consumers to send spam.
The ratio of spam to email now stands at nearly one in two, compared to one in 11 a year ago – a massive 77 per cent increase.
The amount of viruses sent in 2003 has also rocketed, with one email in 33 now containing a bug – up 84 per cent on last year.
MessageLabs blamed that infamous SoBig virus for the huge increase in spam, claiming that two thirds of unsolicited emails were sent last year through computers ‘hijacked’ by SoBig or similar viruses.
The virus protection firm said that they now stop three viruses and 27 pieces of spam a second, up massively from 2002’s levels.
As reported by Startups.co.uk, the government has attempted to combat the problem of clogged-up inboxes by introducing legislation that bans companies from sending emails without the recipient’s consent.
However, critics have pointed out that the laws only apply to UK users and the majority of spam originates from the USA.
The huge increase in spam volumes in recent years has been blamed for harming small businesses’ productivity and eating up computer storage space.
Mark Sunner, chief technology officer at MessageLabs, said that the massive rise in the volume of viruses and spam only tells half the story.
“What 2003 will be remembered for is the new ‘nightmare scenario’ that has emerged for all email users.
“The convergence of virus and spam techniques has led to a much more sophisticated threat- the impact of which many firms have yet to grasp.
“SoBig was the classic example of convergence. This backdoor route means that an infected PC can be turned into a spam engine – causing individual users concern, as well as security breaches and lost bandwidth and productivity for organisations.
“Traditional anti-virus or anti-spam solutions are failing to secure corporate assets because they are primarily reactive.
“The only solution providing effective against known and unknown threats is a proactive, managed service that continuously updates its filters and stops all threats at the internet level before they ever reach corporate networks and end users,” he said.
Source: Startups.co.uk – http://www.startups.co.uk/
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