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Woburn, MA – October 23, 2014Kaspersky Lab today published its Spam in September report which found that financial phishing accounted for 36.97 percent of all detections made by the Kaspersky Lab anti-phishing component. Within that category, the percentage of detections affecting banks accounted for 18.28 percent, followed by online stores (11.35%) and e-payment systems (7.34%).

Additionally in September, spammers exploited the Ebola virus by creating new versions of the old “Nigerian Letter” scam and sending emails claiming to be from the World Health Organization. According to Kaspersky Lab experts several mass mailings in September exploited this theme in attempt to gain personal information and money.

Spam in Figures

  • The U.S. was the top distributor of spam, coming in at 12 percent, followed by Vietnam (9.3%) and Russia (5.8%)
  • In September, the U.S. remained in the top three countries with most antivirus detections (8.26%), while Germany became the country with the most antivirus detections (9.11%) followed by the UK (8.45%)
  • The percentage of spam in September's email traffic averaged 66.5 percent, which is 0.7 percent less than in August
  • In addition to financial services, global Internet portals (24.77%) and social network sites (20.20%) were the types of organizations most frequently targeted by phishers

Quote:
Tatyana Shcherbakova, Senior Spam Analyst
Kaspersky Lab
“Spammers routinely try to exploit breaking news and topical events. The scammers seldom miss an opportunity to use high-profile events to attract the users’ attention and convince them that these fraudulent emails are for real. So after the first news reports about Ebola emerged in July, it was no surprise to start seeing related mass mailings as early as September, exploiting the headlines to deceive recipients and extort money from them.”

The full September spam report is available on Securelist.

About Kaspersky Lab
Kaspersky Lab is the world’s largest privately held vendor of endpoint protection solutions. The company is ranked among the world’s top four vendors of security solutions for endpoint users*. Throughout its more than 16-year history Kaspersky Lab has remained an innovator in IT security and provides effective digital security solutions for large enterprises, SMBs and consumers. Kaspersky Lab, with its holding company registered in the United Kingdom, currently operates in almost 200 countries and territories across the globe, providing protection for over 300 million users worldwide. Learn more at www.kaspersky.com.

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Media Contacts
Susan Rivera
781.503.5211
susan.rivera@kaspersky.com

Spam in September: Financial Phishing Accounts for Highest Percent of Detections

Spam in September: Financial Phishing Accounts for Highest Percent of Detections
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