Secure managed messaging services firm FrontBridge
Technologies has recorded record numbers for spam and viruses in
May.
The company noted that in excess of 7.2 billion messages were
transmitted across its network, blocking more than 85% as spam and
rejecting more than 319 million virus-laden emails. Peak spam
levels in May exceeded 95% three times.
Despite May’s record high message volume totals, FrontBridge
customers were protected from the onslaught that brought down email
operations for companies relying on non-scalable appliances.
FrontBridge normally processes on average more than five billion
business email messages a month for more than 3,700 companies. On 5
May, FrontBridge noted more than 180 companies on its network
experiencing triple digit increases in message volume over the
previous week. Seven customers experienced quadruple digit message
increases, with one company seeing message volume increase by an
unprecedented 4,287%.
FrontBridge states that these wild variances in traffic volumes
would have crippled appliance-based systems which cannot scale to
handle swings in data flow. “FrontBridge is tracking an army of
spambots across the world that now includes millions of machines,
replenishing a pool that had been on the decline for months,”
comments Charles McColgan, chief technology officer, FrontBridge
Technologies.
“The SOBER epidemic really underscores the importance of
outsourced services for protecting against threats. On-premise
software and appliances are ill-equipped to deal with wild
fluctuations in message volume and expose companies to significant
risk when systems crash due to exponential volume increases.”