End of Pornographic Spam?
By IT-Observer Staff
Wednesday, 13 July 2005 14:47 EST
Health and financial spam now dominates, according to Spam-Index, the industry's most in-depth study of unsolicited e-mail. Spam-Index data reveals spammers appear to turn their backs on pornography, with lewd mails in decline over the last two years. However, sex still sells, with health care spam now consistently dominating email inboxes, with dodgy financial offers.
In June 2003 health care and financial spam together accounted for only 39% of all spam e-mails. Yet according to last month's analysis of more than 20,000 individual mails, these two sectors encompass more than 80% of the total. In the meantime, pornography, often considered synonymous with unwanted inbox content, now only accounts for 5%, four times less than the first Spam Index analysis.
"Perhaps it's no surprise that porn's on the wane," said Alyn Hockey, director of research, Clearswift. "Even the most basic spam filters can pick up sexual images, but it's far easier to disguise spam selling health care products as legitimate mail."
"It's a relief that our inboxes aren't as peppered with filth as they once were," continued Alyn, "but we shouldn't become complacent. Viruses and spyware use spam e-mail to spread, so businesses of all sizes must ensure they deploy the most robust content filtering software possible to ensure all spam is weeded out."
The figures would suggest spammers have settled upon health care and financial offers as their tried and tested money earners, preying on people too embarrassed to discuss sensitive difficulties with their doctor, or all too eager to sign up to untested savings plans.
|
|
|
Latest News
5 laptop security tips
20.07.07 Laptop theft is a huge problem.
Essential Bluetooth hacking tools
25.05.07 Bluetooth provides an easy way for a wide range of mobile devices to communicate with each other without the need for cables or wires.
DEP for IE7 in Vista
22.05.07 Security tips blog, security-hacks, has posted details on how to enable DEP for Internet Explorer 7 in Vista.
SMB over SSH: Secure File Sharing
18.05.07 Security tips blog, security-hacks, has published an simple guide to share files securely in heterogeneous networks.
Avoid data leaks by clearing the page file
14.05.07 Security-Hacks publishes a useful tip to avoid potential data leaks when you run out of memory.
How to set Master Password in Firefox
11.05.07 Nowadays many web sites require you to type a user name and password before you can enter the site.
How to test your firewall?
10.05.07 Security tips blog, Security-Hacks, has published a compilation of tools to test your firewall: "We’ve compiled a list of tools we believe will be of value to both home users and advance users.
|
|
