Spam drops to lowest rate since 2003

But ransomware and new malware variants up in June, Symantec report claim

Spam has dropped to less than half of all email traffic for the first time since 2003, according to Symantec, whose latest report also flagged up a rise in ransomware.

According to the June edition of the Symantec Intelligence report, which draws on data from the vendor's Global Intelligence Network, the overall spam rate fell to 49.7 per cent, the first time the rate has fallen below 50 per cent for over a decade.

Phishing rates also fell, with one in every 2,448 emails in June being a phishing attempt, compared with one in 1,865 in May and one in 647 in November, Symantec said. Email-based malware also declined last month.

However, Symantec said the drop in email-based malicious activity could just demonstrate that attackers are moving to other areas of the threat landscape.
New malware variants created in June stood at 57.6 million, up from 44.5 million in May and 29.2 million in April, it pointed out.

Ransomware attacks crept back up for a second consecutive month to stand at 477,000, although this is still down on the high of 756,000 attacks in December. Crypto-ransomware is also on the rise again, with the June figure of 31,000 the highest since the 36,000 attacks recorded in December.