This upsurge is reminiscent of the same period last year – spammers appear to be purposefully increasing their pornographic output during the summer months. IT mangers are warned to be particularly vigilant to guard against damage to company reputation caused by the circulations of inappropriate images.
"Companies can find their reputations compromised by the infiltration of pornographic email, especially when it’s not managed effectively," comments Alyn Hockey, director of research at Clearswift. "In addition to the obvious offence these images can cause, a large percentage of these emails attempt to dupe users into opening viruses that are maliciously hidden within web links or zipped attachments."
But it is not only recipients of spam whose reputation is under threat. Viagra manufacturer, Pfizer, has recently begun a legal campaign against spammers touting potentially counterfeit pills via email and websites. Recent research conducted by Pfizer revealed that a startling 25% of men believed the pharmaceutical giant itself was responsible for sending Viagra spam.
Today Clearswift also announces its first virus index. The findings add weight to the predictions of IT security experts: malicious activity is getting progressively more potent, with zombie and peer-to-peer networks facilitating the spread. Zafi-B, which spreads both as an email attachment and via peer-to-peer file-sharing systems, tops the chart, with Netsky-P and Netsky-D hot on its heels.
These figures were extracted from the millions of spam emails harvested by Clearswift’s seed accounts on a weekly basis. They are collated and analyzed using Clearswift’s’ spamActive service, which is an integral component of the multi-layered anti-spam protection offered by the company's MAILsweeper™ Business Suite II.