Messaging and web security specialist MessageLabs reports an increase in global spam, virus and botnet activity for the month of February.

For the fifth consecutive month, the company reckons spam levels continued to rise with February levels reaching 77.8% of all e-mails. The increase has been linked to the predictable focus on Valentine’s Day related messages. February also saw a hike in seasonal hijacking threats, including the ‘For My Valentine’ malware with attachments such as ‘Greetings Card.exe’.  Additionally, MessageLabs saw a rise in newly created malware with 43.9% of all malware intercepted in February being of a new variety, indicating new efforts from malware authors and perhaps new malware distributors entering the market.

MessageLabs says that with the threat landscape continuing to increase in sophistication and aggressiveness, the introduction of new legislation in several geographies is a welcome arrival. Although Asia Pacific was previously seen as a significant source of spam, the introduction of ‘The Spam Control Bill’ in Singapore may help to decrease overall spam levels. The bill poses tough penalties to those who spam via e-mail and mobile phones, with fines of up to US$650,000.

This policy complements the new US legislation, ‘Undertaking Spam, Spyware, and Fraud Enforcement with Enforcers beyond Borders Act’ (SafeWeb)’, which will see increased cooperation between international law enforcement agencies, including the London Action Plan, an international spam enforcement network. This new act enables agencies to share information in the fight against international spam and online threats. February also saw the first criminal conviction for virus writing in China, where eight men were arrested for creating the W32/Fujacks virus, designed to obtain online gaming information.

“While it is routine to see the bad guys use seasonal tactics to exploit unsuspecting targets, the recent rise in Valentine’s Day specific malware proves it is still effective,” comments Mark Sunner, chief security analyst, MessageLabs. “Although it is commendable that global law enforcement agencies are attempting to address the spam and botnet issue, we are likely to see the spammers continuing to innovate both in terms of targeting and with new techniques to reach the end user.”

In other spam-related news a group of Canadian privacy officials this month – which has been designated Fraud Prevention Month–is callingfor renewed efforts in the fight againstonline frauds such as identity theft.The officials say that Canada is one country that has yet to take action against spam and other malicious Internet traffic, and that to date the federal government has not implemented any of the recommendations of its Task Force on Spam. The group also states that Canada is now the only G-8 country without anti-spam legislation, and notes that spam-buster organisation The Spamhaus Project lists Canada as number sixin the top ten worst countries for originating spam.
John Williamson