Symantec arm MessageLabs reports that 90 percent of all e-mail traffic is spam, up signficantly from the 58% just six months ago.

At that time, anti-spam efforts had reached their peak, along with the convictions and shutdowns of several major spam rings. However, since that time, spammers have regrouped and pushed spam levels to their highest in at least four years.

Even worse? Spam has shot up 5% in just the past month. Whatever these criminals have done, its certainly working very well. Thanks to the lovely anti-spam efforts of Google Apps and Gmail, I haven’t noticed any difference, but I’m sure those less fortunate probably have.

…. Spam, lovely Spam, wonderful Spam ….

Other findings include new efforts by cybercriminals to use established websites to host malware. Such a strategy would make sense, considering how much easier it would be for these folks to spread their wares. They also seem to be working on US schedules, evident by its peak between 9 and 10am, with a drop off overnight.

And if you think CAPTCHA is saving you (or these providers), think again. Spammers and malware purveyors are now making use of CAPTCHA crackers, meaning this line of defense is becoming increasingly useless.

 
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