March 2010 MessageLabs Intelligence Report Highlights

By Ben Gross
in

Many security vendors produce internet security reports that summarize the attacks and threats seen from the vendor’s vantage point of the network. The concise analysis of trending security threats and predictions of future threats make taking a look at the reports worthwhile. The reports are available no cost as they also promote the vendors services.

I will discuss these reports in a series of posts starting with the monthly MessageLabs Intelligence Report. Highlights from March 2010 MessageLabs Intelligence Report (PDF) (podcast) include:

  • Spam has increased to 90.7%, which is up 1.4% since February.
  • Viruses and malware in email decreased to one per 358.3 email, which is down 0.05% since February.
  • Phishing decreased to one in 513.7 emails, which is down 0.02% since February.
  • Malicious websites down to 1,919 websites blocked per day, which is down 61.6% since February.
  • The Rustock botnet sent 77% of its spam using TLS encrypted connections during March.

The report also discusses malware that targets senior officials, the roles most often targeted and the most common countries of origin for the malware.

The top four roles targeted are:

  • Director 8.7%
  • Senior Official 7.3%
  • Vice President 4.4%
  • Manager 4.3%

Top four sources of targeted email attacks based on IP address of the sender:

  • China 28.2%
  • Romania 21.1%
  • United States 13.8%
  • Taiwan 12.9%
Published March 31, 2010