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

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Mike Bracco

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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