October 2008 malware and spam geographical and vertical trends
October 2008 MessageLabs Intelligence Report highlights the following trends:
Geographical Trends:
- In October, spam levels in Hong Kong fell by 1.4 percent but the country retains its place as the most spammed country with levels reaching 78.3 percent of all email. The largest increase was observed in Israel, where spam levels rose by 2.6 percent to 67.3 percent. The greatest decrease was in Singapore, where the level fell by 3 percent to 65.4 percent.
- Spam levels in the US reached 71.9 percent in October, 68.2 percent in Canada and 67.0 percent in the UK. Germany’s spam rate reached 66.7 percent and 66.2 percent in the Netherlands. Spam levels in Australia were 69.9 percent, 74.5 percent in China and 68.0 percent in Japan.
- Virus activity rose by 0.31 percent to 1 in 88.6, the largest increase in October. A decline of 0.9 percent, the highest for October, was observed in France where virus activity reached 1 in 73.6.
- Virus levels for the US were 1 in 253.0 and 1 in 156.4 for the Canada. For the UK, virus levels reached 1 in 85.3, 1 in 241.8 in Australia and 1 in 262.7 for Japan.
Vertical Trends:
- With a decrease of 3.0 percent, the Manufacturing sector maintained its position as the spammed industry sector, with a spam rate of 75.7 percent. The largest increase was noted in the Engineering sector where spam levels rose by 12.3 percent to 78.3 percent.
- The largest decrease was noted in the Recreation sector where levels fell by 7.1 percent to 69.2 percent.
- Chemical and Pharmaceutical sector spam levels reached 67.7 percent, 70.6 percent for Retail, 64.8 percent for Public Sector and 64.5 percent for Finance.
- Virus activity rose by 0.81 percent in the Education sector, the largest increase in October, to 1 in 51.2 The greatest decline was observed in the Real Estate sector, where virus activity decreased by 0.44 percent to 1 in 112.3.
- Virus levels for the IT Services sector were 1 in 144.2, 1 in 182.6 for Retail and 1 in 199.8 for Finance.