A new report from e-mail vendor Postini indicates that spam -- or unsolicited commercial e-mail -- is worse than it has even been. According to the San Carlos, California-based firm, the percentage of spam grew by 59 percent among the 70 billion e-mails that Postini processed from September to November alone, bringing the level of junk e-mail to a striking 91 percent of all e-mails sent.
According to Postini, total levels of spam have risen by 120 percent in the last year. And, just as bad, spam is growing more complex. Some of the latest problems include complex image spam and Office spam (in which malicious code is embedded in attached Microsoft  Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents).
Robot networks, consisting of hundred and even thousands of computers hijacked by malicious code to send out massive amounts of spam, account for much of today's Viagra, drug, and porn offers. These botnets are often said to be controlled by organized criminal groups, not just rogue spammers.
Spam Evolves
"Spammers are increasingly aggressive and sophisticated in their techniques, and protection from spam has become a front-burner issue again," said Daniel Druker, Postini's executive vice president of marketing, in a published statement. "Spam has evolved from a tool for nuisance hackers and annoying marketers to one for criminal enterprises."
Drucker also claimed that the increase in spam has put corporate networks under a "state of siege." But some companies are better than others at fighting that siege, according to Forrester analyst Khalid Kark. "A lot of people that we come across actually have it somewhat under control, typically if they have a provider that's helping them, or if they have a couple of solutions trying to address [the problem]," said Kark.
Layered Protection
But not all companies take that approach -- and they might suffer as a result. "If you're using a tool or service that's right out of the box, then it usually becomes an issue," said Kark. "You have to basically customize or tweak it."
According to Kark, the companies that fare the worst are those whose systems are simpler, or those who don't take the time to customize their defense and deploy several layers of protection, from a network 's perimeter to each of its endpoints -- that is, notebooks, laptops, and even cell phones and PDAs.
"The attacks are becoming complicated," said Kark, "and if you don't have a strategy to address that, you're usually behind the curve."
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