Over 90% Emails Are Spam & Malware

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Getting spam email in your inbox is everyone's daily headache. What we did not realize till now is the magnitude of the problem. Panda Security analyzed over 430 million email messages in 2008 and the results were scary.

Out of all the email messages analyzed, 89.88% turned out to be spam and 1.11% were infected with some type of malware. In the last three months of the year, 301,000 zombie computers were activated and used for distributing spam


"For companies, spam is more than just a nuisance: It consumes bandwidth, wastes employees' time and can even cause system malfunctions. In the end, it all results in a loss of productivity," Luis Corrons, technical director of PandaLabs.

Much of this spam was circulated by the extensive network of zombie computers controlled by cyber-crooks. A zombie is a computer infected by a bot, a type of malware allowing cyber criminals to control infected systems. Frequently, these computers are used as a network to drive malicious actions such as the sending of spam. Just in the last three months of the year, 301,000 zombie computers were being put into action every day.





Sexual enhancements, pharmacy are among favorite subjects

With respect to the different types of spam in circulation, 32.25% of spam in 2008 was related to pharmaceutical products with sexual performance enhancers accounting for 20.5%.

Spam relating to the economic situation also grew significantly throughout 2008. False job offers and fraudulent diplomas accounted for 2.75% of all junk mail in the year, while messages promoting mortgages and fake loans were responsible for 4.75%.

Spam promoting fake brand products was responsible for 16.75% of the total. This last category nevertheless, dropped from 21% in the first half of the year to 12.5% in the last six months.