Study: E-Mail Viruses Up, Spam DownStudy: E-Mail Viruses Up, Spam Down

E-mails bearing viruses increased 42 percent in October compared with January, with one in every 134.5 messages being infected, according to MessageLabs, which provides e-mail filtering services.

MessageLabs scanned 212 million e-mails, of which almost 15 million were found to have potentially harmful content. Users who worked in the leisure industry, sports and entertainment, and retail were most likely to receive viruses and spam, because those industries have the most contact with home users. The fewest attacks were aimed at the IT and telecommunications sectors.

Bugbear and Klez.h were the most popular viruses, followed by Yaha.E and SirCam. Spam accounted for one in 6.1 e-mails in October, down slightly from one in 6 in September.

Porn spam declined from January to October; e-mail containing pornographic images made up one in 3,418 e-mails, down 23 percent since January.