Wall Street

Summer of Love Prompts Salacious Spam Upsurge

While Zafi-B Tops Clearswift's Virus Index

SAN RAMON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 16, 2004--As the temperature rises, spam is also heating up, according to Clearswift's latest spam index. Levels of pornographic e-mails have shot up by almost 350% since June, and in what appears to be an attempt to match supply with demand, healthcare spam (most of which was Viagra) has also risen significantly.
This upsurge is reminiscent of the same period last year -- spammers appear to be purposefully increasing their pornographic output during the summer months. IT managers are warned to be particularly vigilant to guard against damage to company reputation caused by the circulations of inappropriate images.

See attached images for details.

"Companies can find their reputations compromised by the infiltration of pornographic e-mail, especially when it's not managed effectively," commented Alyn Hockey, director of research at Clearswift. "In addition to the obvious offense these images can cause, a large percentage of these e-mails attempt to dupe users into opening viruses that are maliciously hidden within Web links or zipped attachments."

But it is not only recipients of spam whose reputation is under threat. Viagra manufacturer, Pfizer, has recently begun a legal campaign against spammers touting potentially counterfeit pills via e-mail and Web sites. Recent research conducted by Pfizer revealed that a startling 25% of men believed the pharmaceutical giant itself was responsible for sending Viagra-themed spam.

Today Clearswift also announces its first virus index. The findings add weight to the predictions of IT security experts: malicious activity is getting progressively more potent, with zombie and peer-to-peer networks facilitating the spread. Zafi-B, which spreads both as an e-mail attachment and via peer-to-peer file-sharing systems, tops the chart -- with Netsky-P and Netsky-D hot on its heels.

See attached image for details.

These figures were extracted from the millions of spam e-mails harvested by Clearswift's seed accounts on a weekly basis. They are collated and analyzed using Clearswift's spamActive service, which is an integral component of the multi-layered anti-spam protection offered by MAILsweeper(TM) Business Suite II. Updated eight times daily, spamActive routinely extracts spam terms and subject lines, which can be automatically downloaded to update customers' e-mail policies. The virus statistics are generated using raw data from Clearswift's e-Sweeper(TM), a managed e-mail content security solution for service providers.

Clearswift's MAILsweeper(TM) Business Suite II combines comprehensive e-mail content security, learning anti-spam software and remote management functionality, which allows multiple e-mail administrators to investigate quarantined e-mails remotely via a Web-based interface. Its Personal Message Manager feature enables desktop spam management, thus eliminating false positives, and the report center provides powerful reporting capabilities for monitoring spam activity. This solution enables organizations to protect themselves from fraudulent spam, as well as other e-mail threats such as viruses, spyware, pornography, lost productivity, damage to reputation, loss of confidential information and network congestion.

About Clearswift

Clearswift secures content and protects against digital attacks by enforcing security policies that increase productivity, reduce IT costs and create a safer business environment. Its world-leading business is founded on providing Total Content Security for e-mail and Web.

The Internet is the greatest business tool ever invented, but with it comes a harrowing collection of threats. Protecting against the circulation of inappropriate images and text, spam, breaches of confidentiality and viruses is now mission critical.

Clearswift enables organizations to protect themselves against digital attacks, meet legal and regulatory requirements, implement productivity-saving policies and manage intellectual property passing through their network.

Clearswift's portfolio includes MIMEsweeper(TM), the world's most advanced content security solutions, as well as a range of specialized security solutions for the most security conscious environments. Clearswift has 15,000 customers and over 20 million end users worldwide. It has offices in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Japan and Australia.

About e-Sweeper(TM)

e-Sweeper is a managed e-mail content security solution for service providers. Experienced professionals handle protection from content threats at the e-mail gateway, freeing the organization from the cost of implementing the hardware, software and administration expertise necessary to effectively stop the myriad of content security threats.

Clearswift, MAILsweeper, MIMEsweeper, spamActive and ENTERPRISEsuite are trademarks or registered trademarks, in the United States, United Kingdom and certain other countries, of Clearswift Limited. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of the individual companies and are respectfully acknowledged.

Contacts


The Intelec Group
Susan Majerus, 480-354-4334
susanm@intelecgroup.com

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