Spam messages were less frequent but more dangerous in Q3 2012. That is according to the latest report from an IT security product company. Compared to the previous quarter, the volume of spam traffic decreased by 2.8 percentage points and averaged 71.5 per cent of total mail traffic. At the same time, the experts recorded a significant increase in the share of malicious mailings – from 3 per cent to 3.9 cent – continuing yet another trend for the year.
There were also a number of changes in the regional breakdown of spam sources in the third quarter of 2012. Among those countries sending out most spam, the US showed unenviable growth, pushing the North American region’s share up to just over 27 per cent. This was enough to claim second place behind the traditional leader, Asia, with the latter responsible for almost half of all spam mailings throughout the world (49.50 per cent). Western Europe (6.86 per cent) pushed past Eastern Europe (3.64 per cent) and took fourth place, catching up with Latin America (7.34 per cent) in third.
Spam by region, Q3 2012
To some extent, the decline in the share of spam in the third quarter can be accounted for by the traditional business slowdown in summer. However, the downward trend in the amount of spam mailings is also due to the gradual shift of advertising messages from email to other venues such as banner ads, social media, coupon services and contextual advertising. Therefore, despite a slight burst of post-holiday activity in September, the overall trend of falling spam levels remained.
The migration of advertisers offering perfectly legitimate products and services away from spam has led to an increase in the share of criminal spam containing malicious attachments, adverts for prohibited goods or fraudulent techniques. Q3 2012 once again saw cybercriminals demonstrate their ingenuity, disguising their spam messages as official notifications, according to Kaspersky Lab. Its staff came across messages allegedly sent from hosting providers, banking systems, social networks, online stores and various other services.
Darya Gudkova, Head of Content Analysis & Research at Kaspersky Lab says; “The migration of advertisers from spam to other venues is due in part to the increasing criminalisation of spam, with a large number of advertisements for prohibited goods, as well as fraudulent and malicious emails. Over the past year, Kaspersky Lab experts have observed two trends in parallel: a decrease in the percentage of spam and a slight rise in the percentage of malicious mailings. More likely than not, both trends will continue, as the percentage of spam is on the decline due to the migration of advertisers of legitimate goods and services to other venues.”
The full version of the spam report for Q3 2012 can be found at securelist.com.
