The torrent in spam that started in October may slow slightly after the first of the year, but users should expect more junk mail than ever in 2007, a messaging security company predicted Thursday. Spam volume is up 73% in the last three months, Postini reported, thanks to a one-two-three punch of a huge increase in the number of spam botnets and a major jump in the use of both image- and document-based spam. For the year, spam quantity is up 143%.
"It"s a triple threat, a perfect storm," says Dan Druker, a Postini executive VP. "Spammers are using much more difficult [to stop] techniques than in the past, and the botnets are much bigger." Some days in November, Postini, which offers enterprises managed antispam services, counted a million different IP addresses bound to incoming junk mail.