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Technical Help & Discussion => General Tech Discussion, News & Q&A => Topic started by: Clive on December 03, 2007, 22:16

Title: 98 per cent of all email is spam
Post by: Clive on December 03, 2007, 22:16

There are 20 billion spam email messages received in the UK every day - that's 300 for every man, woman and child in the country.

According to IronPort Systems, which today published its 2008 Internet Security Trends Report, there are some 120 billion spam emails send per day worldwide, meaning that the UK receives one sixth of them.

IronPort also said that new malware attacks have become much more sophisticated, making them harder to counteract.

"Just when malware design seemed to have reached a plateau, new attack techniques have emerged, some so complex ? and obviously not the work of amateurs ? they could have only been designed by means of sophisticated research and development," said Jason Steer, European product manager for IronPort.

The problem, according to IronPort, is that the protection offered by security firms became so good, cybercriminals were forced to go to rethink their methods and come up with new attack vectors.

"For a time, security controls designed to manage malware were working. But, as a result of this success, the threats they protected against were forced to change. In 2007, many of these threats underwent significant adaptation. Malware went stealth, and the sophistication increased."

www.ironport.com

Title: Re: 98 per cent of all email is spam
Post by: Simon on December 03, 2007, 22:42

Frightening, and bloody annoying.   >:(

Title: Re: 98 per cent of all email is spam
Post by: Rik on December 04, 2007, 00:58

And who's getting my share? :)

Title: Re: 98 per cent of all email is spam
Post by: Clive on December 04, 2007, 08:27

That would be me!  Around 400 a day spam compared to 10 a day genuine mail.  :bawl:

Title: Re: 98 per cent of all email is spam
Post by: Simon on December 04, 2007, 09:34

:eeek:

Title: Re: 98 per cent of all email is spam
Post by: Rik on December 04, 2007, 09:44

That is bad. I get about 200 'good' mails a day, and about 3 spam on average.

Title: Re: 98 per cent of all email is spam
Post by: Clive on December 04, 2007, 11:17

That's remarkable Rik!  Some people get all the luck!   :D

Title: Re: 98 per cent of all email is spam
Post by: Rik on December 04, 2007, 11:54

Part of it is my ISP's spam defences, Clive, but even on my own domain or Gmail I don't get that much. The worst offender is my old mail.com address, but that has been out there a decade or more.

Title: Re: 98 per cent of all email is spam
Post by: Clive on December 04, 2007, 15:38

To be fair to BT (did I really say that???) they remove 99% of the spam but I still have to check through thespam folder to make sure proper mail hasn't gone there by mistake.  That happens quite often.  :bawl:

Title: Re: 98 per cent of all email is spam
Post by: Rik on December 04, 2007, 17:18

I get spam reports from my domain mail, but check the others. Google traps a few 'safe' messages, IDNet, so far, have been 100% accurate.

Title: Re: 98 per cent of all email is spam
Post by: Reno on December 05, 2007, 19:43

I've had my yahoo account for 5 or 6 years with less than 2 spams a month. Mostly its from people on email list that gets a virus or something and spams everyone else by accident.

Don't give your email out to websites and you won't have to worry. The only websites i give my email to are forums and everything else gets my trash hotmail eddy.