Symantec reports that email spam rates have reached an all time low this month, but this could actually be the calm before the malware storm.
Spam has been plaguing emails for so such a long time that it has received its own folder in the email menu. And now, all of a sudden, top notch security company Symantec proudly announces that spam emails have plummeted below the 50% quota. So, email users could technically rejoice, because for the time in 12 long years, there are slightly higher chances that their next unread email is actually legit, rather some sort of scam, plot or hoax, that aims to attack their digital information in some way.
“This is the first time this rate has fallen below 50 percent of email for over a decade. The last time Symantec recorded a similar spam rate was clear back in September of 2003.” says Ben Nahorney, Symantec cyber security specialist.
This actually is a joyous occasion and quite the sizable triumph for the authorities that seem to be getting a firmer grip on the spam situation. But are they keeping spammers at bay or are the spammers regrouping to devise some new way of targeting online victims?
The increased malware ratio would suggest that this email spam plummet should be analyzed from a slightly wider standpoint. All the internet history up to date point to the fact that as long as there are active websites out there, the spammers will follow. Symantec identifies almost 58 million malware variants, which is a whopping increase from the last few months.
Only last month, the malware rate was at 44.5 million, while in April it had reached a very low quota of only 29.2 million. This increase trend clearly points out that malware is going rampant on the web and that there is quite a bit to do before the situation is completely resolved.
Therefore, additional effort should be directed towards creating stronger anti-malware programs that could at least detect and kill off existing malware. The upcoming malware is expected to be much more potent, so speed is of the utmost importance.
It remains to be seen how this spam-malware ratio will behave from here on, but it is recommended that internet users keep their antivirus programs updated at all times.
Image Source: allspammedup
