Websense publishes bleak spam figures

WEBSENSE REVEALED today its findings from a bi-annual research report which claims that over 90 per cent of unwanted emails contain links to spam and malicious websites.

The ‘Websense Security Lab, State of Internet Security, Q3-Q4 2008’ report highlights the constant rise of spam and malware attacks.

When looking at the 100 top websites, Websense found that 70 percent hosted malicious content or had some hidden redirect which took the innocent surfer from heaven to hell. According to the new research, these figures show a 16 per cent increase over the last six months.

The research also found that 77 per cent of the websites Websense classified as malicious were in fact popular sites with good reputations which had simply been compromised and taken over by hackers.

The actual figures for malicious websites have increased by almost 50 per cent, 39 per cent of these attacks looking to steal the user’s personal data.

Not surprisingly, the Web continues to be the most common avenue for stealing data, figures show that attacks have increased by 24 per cent over the last six month period of 2008.

Websense Chief Technology Officer Dan Hubbard said, "In the last six months criminals have really stepped up their game in a few notable areas. Spammers are increasingly using links to malicious Web sites and spam sites in their email campaigns to lure users and evade security systems that lack Web intelligence."

So, it looks very much like things are only going to get worse in 2009. μ