Financial services is the most common subject of spam,
accounting for 38% of all unsolicited commercial e-mail in
September 2002, while spam accounts for more than 17% of all
e-mail, according to new findings from Brightmail and MessageLabs
respectively.
According to latest data from anti-spam software provider
Brightmail, more than 5.25 million spam attacks were recorded last
month, comparing to 1.4 million for the same month last year. It
found that after financial services, products sales are the second
most common subject of spam, at 28%, whilst pornography is third,
accounting for 11% of unsolicited commercial e-mail.
At the same time, UK e-mail service provider MessageLabs has
found that more than 17% of all e-mail across the internet falls
within its definition of spam, according to CNet News which cites
the company's latest monthly report.
According to the report, the manufacturing and engineering
sectors are currently the first targets of spammers, with health
care following. Also, US companies face a much bigger spam problem
than British businesses.
The Brightmail spam statistics for September 2002 can be found
at:
www.brightmail.com/pdfs/1002_spam_attacks.pdf
www.brightmail.com/pdfs/1002_spam_definitions.pdf
