Sophos, a company that specializes in providing antivirus and antispam security solutions, has just released a new report regarding spam trends, and it seems that business spam is increasing. Spam traffic in June 2008 increased by 4.3%, reaching a total of 96.5%. Businesses have to contend with the fact that just 1 out of 28 messages is not spam.

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant with Sophos, comments: "If your company is on the Internet, it's going to be hard for it to do business unless it has an effective anti-spam defense in place. Otherwise the amount of junk mail will be swamping legitimate correspondence from your customers and suppliers. It should be remembered also that some spam is not just a nuisance, but malicious in its intent - trying to get you to click on an attached Trojan horse or lead you to a dangerous website. Organizations need a consolidated anti-spam and anti-malware solution at their gateway, updated around the clock to neutralize the latest internet attacks."

In order for spam messages to be propagated, one must use a network of zombie computers, or botnet. Any user that falls short of taking the necessary safety precautions (such as using security software and updating it regularly) could get infected and unwillingly become a member of a botnet.

The top three countries that send out the most spam messages are: the US with 14.9%, Russia with 7.5% and Turkey with 6.8%. The UK came in at number 8, with 3.2%.

Cluley warns about the dangers PC users in the US and Russia expose themselves to: "These computers are under the remote control of hackers which means they can be used not only for sending a tidal wave of spam, but also potentially steal banking details and credit card information for the purposes of identity theft."

The Sophos chart also revealed a newcomer: Argentina, which ranked in at number 10, with 2.9%. Although the situation here is not as serious as in the US, more and more people are expected to purchase a PC and to connect to the Internet in Argentina, since the economy is booming. If users do not take IT security seriously, they will find that hackers are not particularly interested in what part of the world they are from, and will infect their machine.