Back-to-school sales, politics spur spam to new heights

IDG News Service - Spurred by back-to-school sales and political pitches, spam messages accounted for 82% of all the inbound e-mail processed during August and made up 90% of all mail sent during one spam-filled day last month, according to an e-mail security firm.
FrontBridge Technologies Inc. said it blocked 2.5 billion unsolicited messages out of 3.1 billion messages processed during the month of August. The e-mail storm reached a peak on Aug. 30, when 90% of all the messages FrontBridge processed were spam, the Marina Del Rey, Calif.-based company said in a statement.
FrontBridge, which offers e-mail management and security services for companies, compiled its data from more than 2,200 global customers and 15,000 e-mail domains.
Offers for back-to-school items and political spam from around the world led the charge in August. The 82% figure compares with a monthly total of 80% spam in July and 57% spam one year ago, according to figures provided by FrontBridge.
The company also stopped 34 million virus-infected e-mail messages in August. FrontBridge licenses antivirus technology from a number of companies that it uses in its services.
The one-day high of 90% topped the previous one-day concentration of spam of 85%, set in June, the company said.
It could have been worse. The volume of spam last month was actually lower, due to reduced output from spam operations in Boca Raton, Fla., which lost power after two hurricanes hit the state last month, the company said.
Overall, spam volume has increased 1,600% since the company began filtering it in 2000, said FrontBridge.