Q4 2008 Internet Threats Trend Report

Spam and malware levels bounce back post-McColo


This Jan 2009 report from Proofpoint and Commtouch reviews the major Internet-threat related news of the fourth quarter - the downfall of one of the largest, most notorious Web hosting services, McColo, which temporarily reduced global spam levels to one-third their usual level. As a result, spam levels during the fourth quarter reached their lowest point for the year: 59 percent of all email.

Spam levels averaged 72% of all email traffic throughout the quarter and peaked at 94% in October, pre-McColo, then bottomed out at 59% in early December, post-McColo.


Register Now To Receive:

  • The free Proofpoint/Commtouch Q4 2008 internet threats report that details the rapidly changing state of malware distribution as spammers exploited the financial crisis as well as the Presidential election and hid their illegitimate content on various legitimate sites. Understand the reasons why signature-based anti-virus protection alone cannot fully protect today's enterprise.
  • The Proofpoint whitepaper "Close the Zero-Hour Gap," which describes the latest virus distribution techniques and how Proofpoint Zero-Hour Anti-Virus technology can protect your enterprise against new viral outbreaks within minutes of their introduction.
  • Access to the Proofpoint on-demand web seminar, Close the Zero-Hour Gap - Real-time Protection Against Emerging Virus Attacks."
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About Proofpoint Zero-Hour Anti-Virus

The Proofpoint Zero-Hour Anti-Virus module, a component of the Proofpoint Messaging Security Gateway and Proofpoint Protection Server, protects enterprises against new viruses and other forms of malicious code during the critical first hours after new viruses are released and before anti-virus signatures have been updated.

To protect large organizations from emerging virus attacks, Proofpoint Zero-Hour Anti-Virus combines global analysis of Internet traffic patterns with local containment of suspicious messages and attachments.

Proofpoint Zero-Hour Anti-Virus constantly analyzes millions of Internet messages for anomalies that indicate a potential virus attack. Advanced pattern recognition technology is used to identify new viruses within minutes of their mass distribution over the internet with greater than 95% accuracy.

At the customer's site, Proofpoint Zero-Hour Anti-Virus analyzes incoming messages for similarities with suspected virus messages. Messages and attachments that exhibit recurrent pattern characteristics of the emerging virus are automatically quarantined at the enterprise gateway where they can be held until the availability of a production-ready virus signature.

Learn more about protecting your enterprise from zero-hour threats by downloading this free whitepaper from Proofpoint, Inc.
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