Date: 2007-12-04 Category: News

UK computers hit by 20 billion spam messages every day

A new report from anti-spam software company IronPort Systems finds that UK computer users are sent 20 billion spam e-mails every day, up 100 percent from last year.

The research showed that spam is an increasing problem for both enterprises and consumers, and that the United Kingdom is now ranked third on the global hit list for spammers.

With many large organisations struggling under ever-increasing network traffic demands, it will be disheartening for IT managers sifting through junk mail filters to learn that 98 percent of all e-mail traffic is now spam. This equates to 120 billion messages sent around the world every day.

Jason Steer, European product manager at IronPort, said: "Just when malware design seemed to have reached a plateau, new attack techniques have emerged, some so complex—and obviously not the work of amateurs—they could have only been designed by means of sophisticated research and development."

IronPort estimates that spam e-mail is now a $200 billion £98.9 billion business.

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