20 billion spam emails hit UK inboxes daily

A new report released today has revealed the UK is now number three on the global hit list for spam gangs, who are targeting 20 billion spam messages at UK computer users every day.

The 2008 Internet Security Trends Report from security vendor IronPort Systems also found the current volume of UK-targeted spam marked a 100 per cent increase on 2006 levels.

It said 120 billion spam messages are sent every day worldwide, constituting 98 per cent of all email traffic. And it predicted that social network sites will become prime source of personal data for spam gangs to target in 2008, with Christmas proving a lucrative period as the shift their focus to online shopping.

Jason Steer, IronPort European product manager 2007 marks a turning point for spam and virus threats in the UK.

"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," he said.

He suggested that the gradual development of more sophisticated security controls have been a victim of their own success, where many threats were significantly adapted. "For a time, security controls designed to manage malware were working. But," he added, "malware went stealth and the sophistication increased".

At the same time, the report found spam, virus and malware attacks are costly. The average UK computer user spends five to 10 minutes dealing with spam every day and clean-up costs are estimated at $500 (£241.78) per computer.

It also estimated 60 million people have had data about themselves exposed over the past 13 months and there has been an estimated $20 billion (£9.7 billion) spent in clean-up costs and lost productivity worldwide. While 48 per cent of organisations do not have a policy for notifying customers when their private data may be at risk.

Building on the trend for social targeting and engineering, IronPort said modern malware borrows characteristics from this space. "The newest threats like the Storm Trojan are collaborative, adaptive, work between two computers and are intelligent. It flies under the radar, living on PCs for months or years without detection," it warned.

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