Cisco: Majority of email is spam

Spam accounts for nearly 200 billion messages each day, approximately 90% of global email, according to the recently released 2008 edition of the Cisco annual security report.

by Helen Leggatt

The country from which the majority of spam originates is the U.S., contributing 17.2%, followed by Turkey (9.2%), Russia (8%), Canada (4.7%), Brazil (4.1%), India (3.5%), Poland (3.4%), South Korea (3.3%), Germany and the U.K (2.9% apiece).

Cisco said its researchers saw a 90% growth in threats originating from legitimate domains, nearly double that observed in 2007. This "reputation hijacking" makes spam harder to detect and block, providing spammers with better deliverability.

Email users are playing their part with many using software to catch and delete malware, demonstrated by a decrease in the volume propagated via email attachments. Over the past two years, the number of attachment-based attacks decreased by 50% from 2005 and 2006.

"Every year we see threats evolve as criminals discover new ways to exploit people, networks and the Internet. This year's trends underscore how important it is to look at all basic elements of security policies and technologies," said Patrick Peterson, Cisco fellow and chief security researcher.

"Organizations can lower their risk of data loss by fine-tuning access controls and patching known vulnerabilities to eliminate the ability for criminals to exploit holes in infrastructure. It is important to upgrade applications, endpoint systems and networking equipment to help ensure that corporate systems run smoothly and minimize risk."

Cisco has posted a couple of videos on YouTube. One condenses the main findings of its report while the other looks specifically at botnets, which are described as the nexus of cybercrime.

Tags: botnet, Cisco, cybercrime, deliverability, email, reputation hijacking, spam, spammers