Spam accounts for 96.5% of business email, according to Sophos

Rob Stringer

A report carried out by Sophos on spam received between April and June of this year has revealed that 96.5% of all business email is likely to be spam, making just one in 28 emails legitimate.

The research shows that the figure has risen from 92.3% recorded in the first quarter of the year.

According to Sophos, the majority of email spam is sent from innocent third-party computers, hijacked by cybercriminals out for financial gain. Users remain unaware, and often the computers have not been sufficiently protected.

In an examination of the top twelve countries responsible for relaying spam throughout the world, or the ‘Dirty Dozen’, the US holds the number one spot, accounting for 14.9% of the total amount. Russia and Turkey enter at second and third place with 7.5% and 6.8% respectively, while the UK comes in 9th at 3.2%.

The breakdown of spam-relaying countries by continent reveals that Asia lead at 35.4%, followed by Europe at 29.5% and North America at 18.2%.

“It should be remembered…that some spam is not just a nuisance, but malicious in its intent – trying to get you to click on an attached Trojan horse, or lead you to a dangerous website,” says Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant of Sophos.

Cluley notes that computers under the control of hackers “can not only be used for sending a tidal wave of spam” but can also “potentially steal banking details and credit card details for the purposes of identity theft.”

The investigation also reveals that there is an increased trend in spammers using social networking sites and mobile phones.

Corporate executives were targeted in May when the Linkedin business networking system was spammed, whilst in April the switchboard of Dublin Zoo became flooded with calls from over 5 000 people who had all been sent an SMS text message urging them to call a fictitious person at the zoo – names given included Anna Conda, Rory Lion and G Raffe.

This latter technique is effectively used by spammers who wish to congest the phone lines of an organisation they may hold a vendetta against.

The report also indicates that spear phishing, or spam that has been personalised to a particular domain or organisation, is also on the rise.

Spam accounts for 96.5% of business email, according to Sophos

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