New Data Shows Rapid Surge In Phishing Email

Berlin, February 8, 2012 – The turn of the year 2011/2012 was characterized by

two contrasting trends for e-mail security: whereas spam levels underwent a

dramatic decline in December, phishing e-mail experienced explosive growth: its

share increased by 194% in December and by a further 214% in January. By

contrast, overall spam levels declined by 70.3% in December and experienced

only a slight increase of 9.7% in January. That put spam volumes at the lowest

rate since early 2007. Those are the findings presented today in the February

2012 E-mail Security Report conducted by leading German e-mail security

provider, eleven. The most important spam trend was a significant increase in socalled

drive-by spam – specially prepared HTML e-mails that infect the computer

with malware as soon as an e-mail is opened.

An overview of further key trends:

The trend toward regionalized phishing campaigns continued in December

and January, targeting e.g. German-speaking users. The range of topics

used in phishing campaigns continues to expand; in addition to bank data,

phishers are increasingly focusing on accessing e-mail accounts and

online services such as Amazon or Facebook.

The decline in spam levels is primarily attributable to the widespread

absence of casino spam waves. Whereas such spam still comprised

69.1% of all spam e-mail in November 2011, that value was only 7.5%

(fourth place) by January. The most prevalent spam topic was

pharmaceuticals (26.0%), a long-term frontrunner and number one for the

first time again since May 2011. With 23.2%, fake luxury goods came in

second, followed by dating spam with 8.1%.

There were also shifts in terms of geographic origin of spam. The majority

of spam still comes from India with 11.7% in January. Spam from Brazil

experienced a major decline (fifth place, 5.1% versus 11.2% in November)

and Vietnam (seventh place, 4.2% versus 8.9%). Indonesia made the

largest gain, jumping to second place (with 7.9%), followed by Russia (7.

2%). The top ten list of spamming countries is dominated by Asian and

Eastern European countries.

Germany is once again becoming the source of an increasing level of

spam; the country came in 19th with 1.3% in January 2012 (November:

30th, 0.6%) and more than doubled its share of overall spam volume

within two months. The long-term forerunner, the USA, once again picked

up speed as well; it went from 14th (with 1.3%) in November 2011 to 11th

(with 2.5%) in January 2012.

Malware volumes increased by 8.0% in January 2012, and the occurrence

of unknown virus outbreaks increased by 6.5%. The largest sender of

known malware was China with 29.4%. In terms of outbreaks, Italy came

in first (10.7%); Germany ranked both seventh (3.1%) and eighth (3.7%).

Versions of the MyDoom worm dominated malware sent via e-mail in

December and January, comprising approximately 65% of all virus emails.

MyDoom is one of the most widely disseminated malware families

and appeared for the first time in 2004.

Spam's overall share of total e-mail volume declined to 75.1% in January

2012; in November 2011, 90.2% of all e-mail was spam.

You can find eleven’s complete E-mail Security Report in the eleven

security blog at http://www.eleven-securityblog.de and on the eleven

website at http://www.eleven.de/eleven-security-reports.html.

eleven on Twitter: http://twitter.com/elevensecurity

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eleven is a leading e-mail security provider based in Germany. Its unique eXpurgate

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offers numerous virus protection options and a powerful e-mail firewall.

Over 45,000 companies of all sizes use eXpurgate to check and categorize more than a

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RTL, ThyssenKrupp and Tobit Software AG. For more information, visit our website at:

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