Spam at 3 year low
By Shalini Singh

Online security giant Symantec has announced the publication of its June 2011 Symantec Intelligence Report, the first Symantec report to combine the best research and analysis from the Symantec.cloud MessageLabs Intelligence Report and the Symantec State of Spam & Phishing Report. This month's analysis reveals that spam is currently at the lowest level it has been since the takedown of McColo, a California based ISP which hosted command and control channels for a number of major botnets, in November 2008.

Since the shutdown of Rustock, the largest spam-sending botnet, in March 2011, the volume of spam in global circulation each day continues to fluctuate. Spam accounted for 72.9 percent of email in June, returning to the same level as in April earlier this year. According to Symantec Intelligence, 76.6 percent of this spam was sent by botnets, compared with 83.1 percent in March.

Other report highlights:

Spam: In June 2011, the global ratio of spam in email traffic decreased by 2.9 percent since May 2011 to 72.9 percent (1 in 1.37 emails).

Phishing: In June, phishing activity decreased by 0.06 percent since May 2011; one in 286.7 emails (0.349 percent) comprised some form of phishing attack.

E-mail-borne Threats: The global ratio of email-borne viruses in email traffic was one in 300.7 emails (0.333 percent) in June, a decrease of 0.117 percentage points since May 2011.

Web-based Malware Threats: In June, MessageLabs Intelligence identified an average of 5,415 Web sites each day harboring malware and other potentially unwanted programs including spyware and adware; an increase of 70.8percent percent since May 2011.

Endpoint Threats: The most frequently blocked malware for the last month was W32.Ramnit!html. This is a generic detection for .HTML files infected by W32.Ramnit[1], a worm that spreads through removable drives and by infecting executable files. The worm spreads by encrypting and then appending itself to files with .DLL, .EXE and .HTM extensions.