Spam now accounts for 92% of all email, all-time record

McAfee, the antivirus software and computer security company, has just released its quarterly Threat Report (download here) and the results aren’t good.

McAfee reported that spam email accounted for 92% of all email sent in the past quarter – beating the previous all-time record of 91%. In addition, June produced the most amount of spam they have ever seen for any one month – beating the old record by more than 20% which occurred in October of 2008.

Other interesting statistics included a break down of all spam based on subject. For whatever reason, prescription drug spam skyrocketed to account for 60% of all spam in the last quarter. Taking second and third place was advertising with 16% and male enhancement with 7.3%.

Another interesting statistic to note is that although the United States is still the number one producer of all spam and accounts for more than 25% of it, that figure continues to decline as other parts of the world develop and jump into the spam game. I also find it quite funny how McAfee managed to infuse some humor throughout the report.

Spam by Country

Spam by Subject

Download McAfee Threats Report: Second Quarter 2009 by McAfee ® Avert ® Labs