The June report from Symantec lists the rather uncreative blank subject line as the top spot in its analysis of spam during May, with the less-than-original ‘Please Read’ coming in third place.
The monthly review also provided insight into mid-year trends, as Symantec identified several developing spam and phishing trends gleaned from the first six months of 2010. Most notable among these: the proliferation of spam techniques aimed at social networks; an uptick in .ru spam; and the assent of the EMEA as it closes in on sending half the world’s spam.
Symantec’s data show a 12% increase (to 34.1%) in spam originating from .ru URLs, as the domain came in second to .com at 49% during May. The report also revealed a slight 3% decrease in spam coming from the US last month, but the country still led the way by a healthy sum over other locations by a better than three-to-one margin over second place.
The report also provided a detailed breakdown of social networking spam schemes that have achieved popularity over the first half of the year. They include fake invitations to join a network, bogus photo tagging/comments, rogue applications, fake surveys, and, capitalizing on recent news, scams disguised as privacy protection information.
It also appears as if the EMEA region, responsible for sending the most spam so far in 2010, had its worldwide share increase nearly 3% during May, which corresponded with a near 3% decrease in spam from North America during the same period. The EMEA region has experienced a gradual increase in the amount of spam coming from these areas thus far in 2010, with the sharpest increase occurring last month. EMEA as the place of origin comprised 48.1% of all spam tracked by Symantec in May.