MessageLabs has published its intelligence report for August 2006. In this months findings, MessageLabs observed the continuing trend for online criminals to develop sophisticated new phishing attacks and trojans that exploit widespread vulnerabilities, such as the publicised MS06-040 and prey on the popularity of instant messaging software, social networks and ecommerce sites.

Whilst spam activity during August fractionally increased by 1.8 per cent to 64.5 per cent of all emails sent and virus traffic continues to plateau at approximately one per cent, the most significant result highlights how phishing attacks, as a proportion of all virus and trojan activity, accounts for almost one-third of all threats compared to one-fifth of all threats just one month ago.

MessageLabs has observed a steady rise in the number of phishing attacks since 2005, now accounting for 30.7 per cent of all malicious emails, and evidence indicates phishing appears to be replacing large virus outbreaks as online criminals attack method of choice. In addition, phishers appear to be expanding beyond their traditional base in fraudulent online banking sites and significantly increasing their attacks on customers of ecommerce sites such as eBay and PayPal, as well as members of social networking site MySpace.

Despite the growing influx of phishing attacks, trojans also saw activity due to the widespread MS06-040 vulnerability. Though a critical patch update was quickly offered by Microsoft for the operating systems at risk, a well known Russian spammer was able to exploit unpatched servers using the infamous Pro Mailer DMS spam software and its advanced spam-cannon technique. This technique, which employs a powerful mail-merge of addresses with preset spam templates, enables the spammer to maximise throughput and distribute millions of spam messages per hour through a single compromised computer.

Spam: The global ratio of spam this month is 64.5 per cent, which is an increase of 1.8 per cent from July. More attacks like the spam-cannon used by the Russian spammer this month are being seen as online criminals reap success from these sophisticated new methods.

Viruses: The number of viruses found in emails has decreased this month. On average only one in 98.4 emails contains a virus as compared with last months one in 96.6 emails. Virus traffic this month only accounted for one percent of emails, which proves that online criminals are moving away from virus outbreaks and focusing their efforts on more targeted phishing attacks for which they see greater results.

Phishing: There was a significant increase in the average number of phishing attacks around the globe this month. The number increased from one in 460 last month to one in 321 in the month of August. As the number of virus outbreaks drops we continue to see the number of phishing attacks increase, as the focus shifts to more targeted attacks.

Geographic Trends:

• Of the top five countries in August, Israel had the largest increase in spam, with 0.7 per cent, and they remain at the top of the list with a rate of 78.0 per cent
  
• Ireland had an eight per cent drop in spam levels this month dropping it one spot to the third highest spam rate at 62.5 per cent. The UK and Australia also achieved significant reductions in spam levels, dropping 7 per cent and 6.9 per cent respectively
  
• India and Japan still maintain the lowest spam rates with 29.1 per cent and 33.0 per cent, respectively
  
• India remains the country with the highest virus rate once again with one in 13.3, but they did show the biggest drop for the month
  
• The greatest increase in virus activity happened in Germany in August with a 2.7 per cent rise putting the virus rate at one in 21.3, making it the third highest rate in the world
  
• Austria and Belgium have the two lowest virus rates at one in 126.1 and one in 171.4, respectively.

Vertical Trends:

• Education continues to have the highest spam rate in the month of August in terms of verticals with a rate of 68.2 per cent, an increase from last month
  
• The wholesale vertical had a 3.6 per cent increase from last month, pushing it into the top five
  
• The government/public sector and general services remain the verticals with the lowest spam rates at 37.9 per cent and 40.0 per cent, respectively
  
• The largest fall against all sectors came in the real estate field with a 15.1 per cent drop this month in spam levels, moving it from top of the table in July with 67 per cent rate to 51.9 per cent in August
  
• Business support services had a decrease in virus levels this month, but still continue to have the highest rate overall with one in 14.5 emails containing a virus
  
• Telecom remains the industry sector with the lowest virus rate at one in 216.9.
  The August MessageLabs Intelligence Report provides greater detail on all of the trends and figures noted above. The full report is available through the link below.

  Related links: (Open in a new window.)
  www.messagelabs.com/Threat_Watch/Intelligence_Reports
  www.messagelabs.com/
  

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