Spam levels are back on the rise, says security software firm
MessageLabs.
The
MessageLabs
Intelligence Report for May says spam levels are back on the
increase with levels reaching 76.8% of all e-mails in May, levels
not experienced since early 2007.
The rise in spam, according to MessageLabs, is due to a change
of tactics adopted by the spammers. They are moving further away
from a reliance on new and undetectable e-mail attachments, and
towards the exploitation of free, mainstream hosted services such
as Google Docs, Google Calendar and Microsoft SkyDrive.
"The savvy, intelligent and accurate cybercriminals of today
seem to have abandoned the attachments tactic that was so
innovative in late 2007, and are now focused on exploiting free
hosted applications that have become mainstream in 2008," said Mark
Sunner, chief security analyst at MessageLabs.
"The spammers are taking advantage of the fact that these
services are free, provide ample bandwidth and are rarely
blacklisted. This is one more addition to the growing list of ways
the spammers have succeeded in outsmarting traditional detection
devices," he said.