Beyond v1@gr@ - spam's new image

We've all heard about the recent rise in spam, and while I dislike spam as much as the next person, I recently received a spam message that got me quite excited.

Now you may ask yourself, why would anyone be happy about getting spam, any spam, in their inbox, especially since I work for one of the leading anti-spam vendors? Well, that's exactly why I like to see spam. In fact, I have no spam controls on my account for the very purpose of trying to see what is being sent and how the spammers are trying to get through today's corporate defenses.

This recent spam message is a new wave technique that we are increasingly seeing from the spammers, a technique designed specifically to try and fool today's anti-spam technologies. And in all honesty, this is an effective one. I am, of course, talking about image spam.

In the last six months, spam rates have tripled and image spam accounts for nearly 35 percent of overall traffic. Image spam is the latest tactic for bypassing current anti-spam technology. In fact, on any given day, over 25 image spam campaigns are being run resulting in lost productivity and end-user frustration. Not to mention, more image spam is making its way to your inbox. As a result, organisations are struggling to protect against this latest threat in spam attacks.

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