Norton Symantec Blog

False optimism

‘Two years from now Spam will be solved,’ said Bill Gates in 2004 referring to one of the biggest nuisances that web-users have to cope with on a daily basis. Four years on and the landscape has not improved much for computer users.

In it’s monthly report on the state of spam, Norton state that, ‘spam levels have steadily climbed from 56% to 80% of all emails.´ Undoubtedly the technology has become much more sophisticated but spammers are still keeping themselves one step ahead of anti-virus researchers. Norton warned that Internet users have to remain vigilant.

In the Symantec, July 2008 State of Spam report, Symantec have noted the following current trends in spammers’ behaviour:

Hacked personal email accounts are used to spam email contacts
The Chinese earthquake disaster has been used to spread spam emails
An Olympic-related lottery scam has emerged
More and more bogus news events are luring potential victims

It is interesting to dwell upon these latest developments two years after Bill Gates left his day job at Microsoft in optimistic mood. As the ability to catch and delete fraudulent emails grows, so in proportion does the ability and craft of the spammers. The message from Symantec remains the same: when using the Internet, remain vigilant at all times.