Latest Spam Analysis

Last month the Kaspersky Lab analysts forecasted a seasonal decline in spam – the first time in the last few years

Kaspersky Lab experts refer to spam as anonymous unsolicited mass mailings. Most of these mailings are adverts, although several categories of spam serve other purposes. "Non-advertising" spam includes one of the most dangerous types of spam – fraudulent messages.

Spam in mail traffic averaged 86.2% in April 2008. A low of 68.6% was recorded on 28 April, while a high of 93.9% occurred on 9 April

The percentage of spam in mail traffic is still on the rise. In the first quarter this year, spam represented an average of 88% of all mail traffic

Spam in mail traffic averaged 90.7% in March 2008. A low of 83.5% was recorded on 27 March, while a high of 97.8% occurred on 1 March.

Besides phishing messages, another widespread form of fraud in February were fake notifications of lottery wins and offers of free gifts.

Both the US and Russia are still the world’s leading sources of spam. In 2006 China came third in the rating. But in 2007 it ranked only in ninth place.

Email is known to be one of the most popular infection vectors.

The New Year started with the emergence of new methods used to send spam.

Compared to the previous month, the overall quantity of spam declined in December, but still remained relatively high. This level of spam is typical for the end of the year and January will most likely bring a slight decrease.