Symantec's monthly Spam Report is out, just in time to remind us of what our queues and filters and networks all know -- spam is up and so, most likely is the blood pressure of everyone who has an e-mail account.The security firm's May 2008 Monthly Spam Report makes for informative and distressing reading (as it does just about every month.)

Highlights (or, now that I think about, lowlights) this time include the uptick in backscatter/bounceback spam, noted earlier in bMighty, as well as a surge in personalized spam, with Who's Who high-achievers being targeted.

But even those of us who aren't Who's Who candidates remain candidates for spear phish attempts, phony subpoenas and IRS notices, IM spam and all the other tricks the spammers are using.

And using in larger and larger numbers -- according to Symantec's report, 80 percent of all e-mail in April was spam, and that's the good news.

The bad news is that at certain points during April the total hit 87 percent. The cruelest month indeed.

Hard to say that Symantec's monthly report makes for good reading -- but it does make for necessary reading unlike, of course, 80 percent and more of the e-mail we receive.