Spam is overtaking viruses as the biggest pain for businesses using the web.

Monthly reports for March from antivirus companies show that, while virus activity is experiencing single digit growth, spam is growing at between 10 and 30 per cent and now accounts for one in every 2.8 emails.

"Spam certainly is getting to be the major issue," said Paul Wood, information analyst at MessageLabs.

"Whereas a virus infection costs a lot they tend to be isolated occurrences. Spam is like death by a thousand cuts, once you factor in the cost of bandwidth, storage and administration.

"Analysts are predicting that half of all emails will be spam by the end of the year. MessageLabs reckons that will happen within the next three months."

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