The Symantec Internet Security Threat Report states that spam targeting business emails decreased marginally by 3%, from 30 billion spam emails per day in 2012 to 29 billion in 2013.
This number includes different types of spam, from popular diets, pharmaceuticals, adult products and dating sites, which can be simply annoying, to clearly more dangerous spam, which contains attachments that carry malware.
The second type of spam is becoming increasingly popular. According to the report, many spammers who were previously limited to using networks (botnets) to widely disseminate their annoying spam have now focused on creating malware.
Symantec points out that today's spam is not only spread through email. As millions of internet users use social media and providers have improved their spam detection and filtering, spammers have now turned to social networks, where they believe they have a greater chance of operating without being detected.
According to Nexgate's 2013 State of Social Media Spam Report, one in 200 social media posts is spam, and 5% of all social media applications contain some form of spam. Spammers have already been observed to have infiltrated almost every social media community, including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, Tumblr, and more.
Social media provides an ideal haven for spammers due to their huge reach, as a single post can be seen by thousands of users, compared to an email message, which will only reach one user at a time. Furthermore, this spam on social media is difficult to detect and can range from links to fake accounts to spammy apps.
Initially, many spammers relied on fake accounts to handle spam, but recently, more and more spam is coming from accounts belonging to real users. According to Symantec, accounts owned by ordinary users, as well as public figures, have now been exposed and are unknowingly transmitting spam to others.
Source: defencenet.gr
