Updated 26 May, 2012, 11:07 am IST

Only 8.4% of Email That Reached Companies in 2008 Was Non-malicious

11 Feb, 2009, 7:40 pm IST | by tech2 News Staff |

Only 8.4% of emails that reach companies are legitimate. Some 89.88% of messages are spam, while 1.11% are infected with some type of malware. This data has been compiled after the analysis of 430 million email messages in 2008 by TrustLayer Mail, the clean mail managed service from Panda Security. Only January witnessed levels of spam below 80%. The amount of spam fluctuated throughout the year, peaking in the second quarter at 94.27% of all mail reaching companies.

With respect to infected messages in 2008, the Netsky.P worm was the most frequently detected malicious code. This type of malware activates automatically when users view the infedted message through the Microsoft Office Outlook preview pane. It does this by exploiting a vulnerability in Internet Explorer that allows automatic execution of email attachments. The exploit of this vulnerability is detected by PandaLabs as Exploit/iFrame and was the third most frequently detected type of malware in emails by TrustLayer Mail.

"The fact that these two malicious codes often act in unison explains the high number of detections of both. Cyber crooks often launch several strains of malware with each exploit to increase the chances of infection, so even if users whose systems are up-to-date are immune to the exploit, they could still fall victim to infection by the worm if they run the attachment", explains Luis Corrons, Technical Director of PandaLabs.

The Rukap.G backdoor Trojan, designed to allow attackers to take control of a computer, and the Dadobra.Bl Trojan were also among the most prevalent malicious code.

"For companies, spam is more than just a nuisance: It consumes bandwidth, wastes employees’ time and can even cause system malfunctions. In the end, it all results in a loss of productivity”, underlines Luis Corrons.

Much of this spam was circulated by the extensive network of zombie computers controlled by cyber-crooks. A zombie is a computer infected by a bot, a type of malware allowing cyber criminals to control infected systems. Frequently, these computers are used as a network to drive malicious actions such as the sending of spam. Just in the last three months of the year, 301,000 zombie computers were being put into action every day.

With respect to the different types of spam in circulation, 32.25% of spam in 2008 was related to pharmaceutical products with sexual performance enhancers accounting for 20.5%. Spam relating to the economic situation also grew significantly throughout 2008. False job offers and fraudulent diplomas accounted for 2.75% of all junk mail in the year, while messages promoting mortgages and fake loans were responsible for 4.75%.

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