NEW YORK, NY and LONDON–( EMWNews – April 2, 2008) – MessageLabs, the leading provider

of messaging and web security services to businesses worldwide, today

announced the results of its MessageLabs Intelligence Report for March

2008. Analysis highlights that the prolific Storm botnet is responsible for

20 percent of all spam in the first quarter of 2008, with messages selling

male enlargement drugs accounting for 41 percent of its efforts. In

addition to spam, MessageLabs has intercepted more than four million emails

from the Storm botnet since January containing links to malware or aimed at

launching phishing attacks.

“Storm celebrated its first birthday at the start of the year and

commemorated the anniversary with a significant run of nostalgic spam. More

than 78 percent of the spam it spewed out this quarter was either focused

on male enlargement drugs, replica watches or spam of a sexual nature,”

said Mark Sunner, Chief Security Analyst, MessageLabs. “Storm’s focus on

spam seems to be just the tip of the iceberg as emails containing malware

and phishing attacks from the Storm botnet are now growing in numbers.”

Other nostalgic events within the spam landscape this month include the

appearance of stick-man art within a new image-spam campaign. The

amateur-looking artwork, advertising the weight loss drug Hoodia, is the

first of its kind and although the spam run looks the same, the images and

subject lines frequently change in order to evade traditional signature

detection.

MessageLabs Intelligence also highlights the change in the perception of

social networking sites within the business environment with 11 percent of

companies now blocking access specifically to Facebook compared to three

percent who have pro-actively set up rules to allow access.

“Businesses are now becoming wise to the possible impact of social

networking and pro-actively raising their defense barriers against data

loss, threats and employee productivity,” Sunner said. “Moreover, the

possibility of spoofing Facebook accounts is no longer an impossible notion

and may be the next major aspect in identity theft.”

Other report highlights:

Web Security: Analysis of Web security activity shows 9.2 percent of all

web-based malware intercepted was new in March. MessageLabs also identified

an average of 595 new sites per day harboring malware and other potentially

unwanted programs such as spyware and adware.

Spam: In March 2008, the global ratio of spam in email traffic from new and

previously unknown bad sources was 73.8 percent (1 in 1.36 emails), an

increase of 1.1 percent on the previous month. Spam levels for Q1 2008 are

1.1 percent lower than Q4 2007 and 3 percent lower than Q1 2007, but 14.1

percent higher than the same period in 2006.

Viruses: The global ratio of email-borne viruses in email traffic from new

and previously unknown bad sources was 1 in 169.2 emails (0.59 percent) in

March, a decrease of 0.36 percent since the previous month. Virus levels

for Q1 2008 are 0.72 percent higher than for Q4 2007 and 0.06 percent lower

than Q1 2007. Virus levels are 1.47 percent lower than the same period in

2006.

Phishing: March saw a decrease of 0.57 percent in the proportion of

phishing attacks compared with the previous month. One in 228.7 (0.44

percent) emails comprised some form of phishing attack. When judged as a

proportion of all email-borne threats such as viruses and Trojans, the

number of phishing emails had fallen by 13.5 percent to 74 percent of all

email-borne malware threats intercepted in March. Phishing levels for Q1

2008 are almost unchanged since Q4 2007. Compared with Q1 2007, phishing

levels are 0.14 percent higher and 0.34 percent higher than Q1 2006.

Geographical Trends:

--  In March, spam levels in Switzerland rose by 6.15 percent since

    February, surpassing levels in Hong Kong where they fell by 0.76 percent

    during the same period.

--  Spam levels in the US were 70.7 percent in March, 69.1 percent in

    Canada and 61.1 percent in the UK.  Germany's spam rates reached 70.1

    percent and 68.6 percent in the Netherlands. Australia experienced levels

    of 61.3 percent, 66.8 percent in New Zealand, 68.8 percent in China and

    65.5 percent in Japan.

--  Virus activity fell across most regions in March, except in Austria,

    Italy and Sweden  where virus levels increased by less than one percent.

    The largest decrease occurred in Israel where virus levels fell by 1.2

    percent. Swizerland replaces Israel as the most targeted country for

    viruses even with a 0.54 percent decrease in virus levels.

--  Virus levels for the US were 1 in 245.1 and 1 in 180.3 for Canada. In

    the UK, virus levels were 1 in 137.7 and 1 in 255.6 for Germany.  In

    Australia, virus levels were 1 in 215.7, and Japan reached 1 in 257.4.

    

Vertical Trends:

--  Spam levels fluctuated across several industry sectors rose in March,

    with Manufacturing and Education being the top two verticals targeted with

    the highest levels of spam with 82.1 percent and 80.4 percent respectively.

    The greatest rise was noted in the IT Services sector, where spam levels

    rose by 4.6 percent to 79.9 percent.

--  Spam levels for the Retail sector were at 78 percent,  70.6 percent

    for Public Sector,  69.5 percent for Chemical/Pharmaceutical and 68.1

    percent for Finance.

--  Similarly, virus levels for many industry sectors decreased during

    March. Education was the exception where virus levels rose by 0.06 percent.

--  Virus levels for the the Finance sector were 1 in 231.5, 1 in 232.2

    for IT Services and 173.5 for Retail.

    

The March 2008 MessageLabs Intelligence Report provides greater detail on

all of the trends and figures noted above, as well as more detailed

geographical and vertical trends. The full report is available at

http://www.messagelabs.com/intelligence.aspx.

MessageLabs Intelligence is a respected source of data and analysis for

messaging security issues, trends and statistics. MessageLabs provides a

range of information on global security threats based on live data feeds

from our control towers around the world scanning billions of messages each

week.

About MessageLabs

MessageLabs is a leading provider of integrated messaging and web security

services, with over 17,000 clients ranging from small business to the

Fortune 500 located in more than 86 countries. MessageLabs provides a

range of managed security services to protect, control, encrypt and archive

communications across Email, Web and Instant Messaging.

These services are delivered by MessageLabs globally distributed

infrastructure and supported 24/7 by security experts. This provides a

convenient and cost-effective solution for managing and reducing risk and

providing certainty in the exchange of business information. For more

information, please visit www.messagelabs.com.