IT managers warned of summer of spam

IT managers must be on their guard following a sharp rise in pornographic and healthcare-related spam, security firm Clearswift has warned.

According to the company, pornographic spam has leapt by almost 350 per cent since June, while there has also been a significant rise in healthcare spam.

Clearswift observed that spam content tends to change seasonally, with this summer's upsurge in pornographic junk mail following a similar rise last year.

Spammers now appear to be "purposefully" increasing their output of pornographic spam for the summer, Clearswift warned.

Alyn Hockey, Clearswift's research director said: "Companies can find their reputations compromised by the infiltration of pornographic email, especially when it's not managed effectively."

"In addition to the obvious offence these images can cause, a large percentage of these emails attempt to dupe users into opening viruses that are maliciously hidden within web links or zipped attachments."

Last week the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit warned of Trojan software hidden in a website which includes a keylogger to steal sensitive information, and a program that allows an infected PC to act as a mail proxy for spammers.

See also:

Nearly two-thirds of all emails now spam

Firm warns of lasting damage to internet business as spam rates continue to rise  28 Jul 2004

Health and finance top spam subjects

Quack cures and get-rich-quick schemes make up most junk mail  27 May 2004

Spam slips though the maintenance gap

Most anti-spam defences remain inadequate, says Clearswift research  19 Apr 2004

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