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RSS feedsThe continuing threat to firms from unsolicited emails was highlighted again today as a new global SPAM Experiment by security vendor McAfee found an average user receives 70 spam mails a day.
The vendor invited 50 individuals from ten countries to surf the web unprotected for a month in order to see how much spam they would attract and how this would affect their PCs. The UK received the fifth highest amount of spam, with participants bombarded with nearly 12,000 messages, many of them Nigerian scams and messages with adult-related content.
"People often look at spam as an annoyance, but the reality is it's a lot more," said McAfee security analyst Greg Day. "It can make your system very slow and is often another source of information theft."
Eight per cent of UK messages received in the experiment were classed as spam, with many more either carried viruses or encouraged users to visit unsafe web sites where their PC would be infected with silent malware, the report said.
"There is a loud and clear education message here for users," said Day. "All of the participants said that they'd be more careful handing out their email addresses and personal details ion future."
See also:
Murky world of online pharmaceuticals laid bare 12 Jun 2008
Phishing and keyloggers highlighted as criminals go after the data 09 Jun 2008
European Agency for European Network and Information Security talks up its cybermoves 27 May 2008
Spammers are jumping on legitimate web sites in order to reach unsuspecting victims 11 Apr 2008All Enterprise Security Technology
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