Spam hit its lowest level in years in the final quarter of 2011, especially across popular targets such as the UK, Brazil, Argentina and South Korea, McAfee has reported.
However, the US and Germany saw their rates inch up slightly. And although spam levels have declined overall, junk mail is still a clear danger because of the increase in spear phishing, or more targeted attacks. In years past, spammers sent their payloads to a slew of random addresses, hoping to ensnare at least a small percentage of users. But now address lists are more accurate, McAfee said in its report (PDF).
Botnets, or computers tricked into running malicious software, surged in growth in November and December following a drop since August. A few countries saw a decline in botnet activity, but most experienced a significant jump, McAfee said.
For more on this ZDNet UK-selected story, see Spam continues to dip but malware marches merrily on on CNET News.
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