Alerts
Malicious Spam Using Dramatic Subjects to Lure Users
July 7, 2008
Flash Player being exploited
May 29, 2008
SQL Injection Attacks
May 7, 2008
TRACE Blog
Malicious spam up again
August 20, 2008The amount of malicious spam remains extremely high with all the major spamming botnets in on the act.
MSNBC Spam is now 'Weekly top news' Spam
August 18, 2008The Rustock botnet has changed it's 'News' spam once again to 'Weekly top news'.
Rogue Anti-virus Using SEO
August 18, 2008A large operation that uses search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to promote malicious websites is being used to spread rogue anti-virus software.
CNN spam changes to 'MSN Breaking News'
August 13, 2008The malicious CNN campaign by Rustock has morphed to 'MSN Breaking News'.
More Malicious CNN News Spam
August 11, 2008Rustock's CNN News spam has changed slightly over the weekend but is still part of the same malicious campaign that began over a week ago.
Malware Spread Through Social Networking Sites
August 7, 2008A new worm is using the social networking sites MySpace and Facebook to spread and install rogue anti-virus programs.
Malicious spam skyrockets
August 7, 2008The amount of malicious spam being sent has grown massively in the last six weeks to become the number one spam category.
OVERVIEW - Week ending August 17, 2008
Spam as a Percentage of Email
This gauge represents spam as a percentage of total incoming email. The figure is derived from incoming email and other sources monitored by the TRACE team. Reports on the percentage of spam in email can vary wildly - anywhere from 30% to 90%. In fact the volume of spam fluctuates substantially from day to day and week to week. Also, different organizations and countries experience different volumes of spam. The TRACE team is currently seeing fluctuations between 75% to 95%.
Threat Statistics
Spam by Spambot Type
This chart is a proportional breakdown of spam received from each spambot type. Typically a small number of major botnets are responsible for the bulk of all spam. The Rustock botnet has dramatically increased its spamming capacity due to its malicious 'news' campaign, but falls back behind Srizbi again this week.
Threat Resources
- White Paper:
TRACE Report July 2008 - White Paper:
Defense-in-Depth Anti-Spam Engine - White Paper:
Rise and Fall of Image Spam
(updated March 2008) - White Paper:
TRACE Report December 2007 - White Paper:
SpamCensor Explained - User Discussion:
Marshal Forums
About Trace
TRACE (Threat Research and Content Engineering) is a group of Marshal security analysts who constantly monitor and respond to Internet security threats. TRACE provides a service to Marshal customers as part of standard product maintenance. The service includes updates to Marshal's unique, proprietary anti-spam technology, SpamCensor. TRACE analyzes spam, phishing and Internet security trends and provides frequent automated updates to Marshal customers. TRACE also provides "Zero Day" security protection to secure Marshal customers against new email and virus exploits the day they emerge.
The TRACE Center is a sample of the data-gathering and technical analysis methods that Marshal employs.
We will be adding additional statistics and new threat monitors over time so please check back regularly for news, information and new content.
Feel free to email the TRACE Team with any questions you may have: 
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