Spammers are hitting SMBs harder than larger companies,
according to the annual report by Postini, a provider of integrated
message management products.
The report suggests that SMBs were sent nearly 50 spam emails
per day per user in 2005, almost four times the number that large
companies were sent daily.
Postini’s annual Message Management and Threat Report details
industry trends and predictions in threat management and message
processing for 2005 and 2006.
The report points to an increasing complexity and amount of
attacks coupled with the deep concern of messaging system and
security professionals about the crush of message traffic from
email, instant messaging (IM), VoIP, SMS text messaging, and other
emerging forms of enterprise communications.
Security and business continuity are the biggest issues
challenging companies as digital messages proliferate, according to
the report. The incidence of spam monitored by Postini was
continuously high, at 75 to 80% during 2005. Virus activity by
Sober and others has increased dramatically, and new vectors of
attack, such as IM and mobile email, are complicating the
situation.
Sober posed the biggest threat to business in 2005. During a
seven-day period in November, Postini detected and blocked a 1500%
increase in Sober-infected traffic and quarantined more than 218
million Sober-infected messages. Postini ultimately stopped more
than 1.2 billion viruses over the proceeding 30 days, the largest
virus attack it has experienced.