Spam and spyware on the increase

Businesses that can't protect themselves from spam risk losing email as a business tool, according to an expert.

According to Dan Druker, marketing vice president at email security company Postini, 93 per cent of all email is now spam.

"Over the last twelve months the volume of spam has increased by 147 per cent and in the last three months alone the volume has increased by 73 per cent," he said.

"What we see happening in the next twelve months is that businesses that aren't protecting themselves risk losing email as a business tool."

He said that spam is being driven by globalisation.

"As most personal computers are attached to high-speed networks these become the raw material for being hijacked by criminal gangs to spew out even more attacks," said Druker.

He predicted that as more businesses embrace web 2.0 applications this would become another vector of attack for hackers.

"It's going to be under attack from these criminal gangs just like IM and email," he said.

Spyware is also on the increase. According to figures published by the Malware Research Center, there has been a 30 per cent increase in this type of malware, mainly from China and countries of the former Soviet Union.

"As expected, we are seeing a surge in spyware infections this holiday season. There have been limited virus attacks, but spyware in the form of Trojans, keyloggers, phishing and various tracking programs are targeting holiday shoppers, and are just as deadly as mistletoe," said Michael Greene, Product Strategy vice president at the Malware Research Center.