According to the latest MessageLabs Intelligence Report from Symantec, things are looking good as web malware writers have taken a sabbatical. Unfortunately the spammers have gone multi-lingual in a lazy-ass automated kind of a way with great effect.
Spam levels have, say Symantec, stayed at their highest level for two years at 90 percent on average. France, Germany and the Netherlands are suffering more than the rest of us, with spam levels now hitting more than 95 percent. The MessageLabs research folk reckon they know why, and it comes down to those lazy-ass spammers using automated translation services and templates to enable their spam runs to operate in multiple languages.
Indeed, the report suggests that local language spam now accounts for 46 percent of spam in Germany and 53 percent in France. In The Netherlands, 25 percent of spam is in Dutch. In Japan 62.3 percent is in non-English languages and in China this number is 54.7 percent.
“Once again the spammers turn to their online toolbox, the Internet, for their latest tactics. Translation services and templates enable the spammers to push out multiple-language spam attacks and some dubious translations through the use of poor online services highlight the use of these antics,” said Paul Wood, MessageLabs Intelligence Senior Analyst, Symantec. “Non-English spam now accounts for one in every 20 spam messages, a figure we’ll be closely monitoring to see if spammers continue with their global expansion.”
Yay, maybe Google Mail will kindly translate it back into English for us - I for one can hardly wait.
On the good news front, malware writers have eased up so much that it seems they might have gone on vacation. An analysis of web security activity highlights that in July only 0.7 percent of all web-based malware intercepted was new, compared with 58.8 percent in June.