"Addresses on Intercage's network range were being used to host command andcontrol channels for botnets," said Mark Sunner, Chief Security Analyst,MessageLabs. "In disrupting these botnets, the level of spam activitytoward the end of September was severely impaired. But we don't expect thisdip to last long. This time of year is notorious for increased levels ofspam activity as spammers ramp up for the holiday season."

Also in September, analysis of MessageLabs URL Filtering service shows anincreasing number of businesses are blocking employee access toinappropriate web sites, such as pornography, during the working day. Mostpolicy rules are set by organizations to block this content between 7 a.m.and 5 p.m. Further analysis reveals that 28.9 percent of blocks occurbetween 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., which is usually lunchtime for most employees.

"Adult and sexually explicit web content accounted for 1.7 percent of allweb-based content blocked in September," Sunner said. "This is a sign thatorganizations have caught on to the dangers of the web and are doing theirpart to deploy services that will protect their business from web threatswhile also maintaining employee productivity and maintaining acceptable usepolicies."

Other report highlights:

Web security: Analysis of Web security activity shows that 45.9 percent ofall web-based malware intercepted was new in September. MessageLabs alsoidentified an average of 3,660 new websites per day harboring malware andother potentially unwanted programs such as spyware and adware, an increaseof 22.8 percent since August.

Spam: In September 2008, the global ratio of spam in email traffic from newand previously unknown bad sources was 70.1 percent (1 in 1.43 emails), adecrease of 8.1 percent on the previous month. Spam levels for Q3 2008 havedecreased by 1.1 percent since Q2 and are at similar levels to Q4 2007.

Viruses: The global ratio of email-borne viruses in email traffic from newand previously unknown bad sources was 1 in 131.7 emails (.76 percent) inSeptember, a decrease of .4 percent since August. In September, 6.3 percentof email-borne malware contained links to malicious sites, a decline of11.3 percent since August. Virus levels for Q3 2008 are at their highestlevel since Q3 2007 and at similar levels to Q3 2006.

Phishing: September saw an increase of .16 percent in the proportion ofphishing attacks compared with the previous month. One in 288.1 (0.35percent) emails comprised some form of phishing attack. When judged as aproportion of all email-borne threats such as viruses and Trojans, thenumber of phishing emails has decreased by 29 percent to 45.7 percent ofall email-borne malware threats intercepted in September. Phishing levelsfor Q3 2008 are now at their lowest level since Q2 2006, having experiencedsharp declines since the beginning of this year.

Geographical Trends:

-- In September, spam levels in Hong Kong experienced the largest increase and rose by 13.2 percent to reclaim its place as the most spammed country with levels reaching 79.6 percent of all email. Many other countries experienced decreases in spam levels in September. For example, spam in Oman fell by 16.7 percent, the highest decrease this month.-- Spam levels in the UK reached 66 percent in September, 68.4 percent in Canada and 72.4 percent in the US. Germany's spam rate reached 65.4 percent and 66.1 percent in the Netherlands. Spam levels in Australia were 72.6 percent, 75.2 percent in China and 70.6 percent in Japan.-- Virus activity declines across all countries in September, except for Canada where virus activity rose by .31 percent to 1 in 81.9. The largest decrease of 2.51 percent was observed in Italy.-- Virus levels for the US were 1 in 157.3 and 1 in 114.1 for the UK and 1 in 121.4 for Germany. In Australia, virus levels were 1 in 200.0 and 1 in 239.5 for Japan.

Vertical Trends:

-- With an increase of 1.07 percent, the Manufacturing sector became the most spammed industry sector, with a spam rate of 78.7 percent. The largest increase was noted in the Real Estate Agent sector where spam levels rose by 4.09 percent to 71.7 percent.-- The largest decrease was noted in the Automotive sector where levels fell by 14.66 percent to 68.9 percent.-- Chemical and Pharmaceutical sector spam levels reached 71.6 percent, 72.5 percent for Retail, 70.1 percent for Public Sector and 65.0 percent for Finance.-- Virus activity across almost all industry sectors decreased during September, except for the Non-Profit sector where levels rose by .07 percent and with the Real Estate Agent sector which bore the largest increase of .14 percent placing the sector in the top spot for viruses.-- Virus levels for the IT Services sector were 1 in 134.3, 1 in 152 for Retail and 1 in 244.1 for Finance.

The September 2008 MessageLabs Intelligence Report provides greater detailon all of the trends and figures noted above, as well as more detailedgeographical and vertical trends. The full report is available athttp://www.messagelabs.com/intelligence.aspx.

MessageLabs Intelligence is a respected source of data and analysis formessaging security issues, trends and statistics. MessageLabs provides arange of information on global security threats based on live data feedsfrom our control towers around the world scanning billions of messages eachweek.

About MessageLabs

MessageLabs is a leading provider of integrated messaging and web securityservices, with over 19,000 clients ranging from small business to theFortune 500 located in more than 86 countries. MessageLabs provides arange of managed security services to protect, control, encrypt and archivecommunications across Email, Web and Instant Messaging.

These services are delivered by MessageLabs globally distributedinfrastructure and supported 24/7 by security experts. This provides aconvenient and cost-effective solution for managing and reducing risk andproviding certainty in the exchange of business information. For moreinformation, please visit www.messagelabs.com.

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