Proofpoint Attack Response Center Reports that Spam Volume Continues to Skyrocket:...

Proofpoint Attack Response Center Reports that Spam Volume Continues to
Skyrocket: Spam Levels Expected to More Than Double During 2008
Enterprise Spam Volumes Rise by more than 50% in Q1 2008; Some Enterprises See
200% Increase

SUNNYVALE, Calif., March 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Proofpoint, Inc., the leading
provider of unified email security and data loss prevention solutions, today
announced that the Proofpoint Attack Response Center (PARC) has seen
enterprise spam volumes rise by more than 50% during the first quarter of 2008
accompanied by short-term spikes of 60% or more. PARC's observations measure
the volume of spam targeted to enterprises worldwide and represent an average
increase across enterprises. Some enterprises have seen spam volume increases
as high as 200% in Q1 2008. Based on these trends, Proofpoint anticipates that
enterprises will see inbound email spam volume more than double this year,
continuing the trend of the last two years.
The high volumes of email associated with today's spam attacks can
escalate the number of inbound messages between 500% and 700% within a period
of hours. This sudden, exponential growth in spam volumes can easily strain IT
network infrastructure to the point of failure.
"Botnets continue to proliferate and are by far the dominant source of
spam," said Andres Kohn, vice president of product management for Proofpoint.
"The Storm botnet, already the largest network of compromised machines in
history, doubled in size during the 2007 holiday season alone. Other botnets
such as Mega-D, emulate Storm in technical sophistication and may already
surpass Storm as the largest generators of spam. The massive computing power
and network resources associated with these botnets allow spammers and
scammers to constantly increase the aggressiveness and scale of their
attacks."
Kohn added that the large numbers of new Internet users coming online
across the world are fueling the growth of botnets. "Many of these users are
not savvy to modern social engineering techniques and also have limited access
to virus protection," he said. "This makes them easy targets for malware
designed to seize control of their computers. We expect this trend, and the
commensurate trends in botnet and spam growth, to continue through 2008 and
beyond."
"Enterprises today need to prepare themselves for two trends that will
continue for the foreseeable future: rising spam volume and sudden,
unpredictable short spikes in spam volume," said Michael Osterman, president
of Osterman Research. "This means enterprises not only need highly effective
anti-spam technology, but also effective capacity strategies that can
accommodate sudden wild fluctuations in volume. Most companies today have the
former, but not the latter, and are encountering problems."
Proofpoint's messaging security experts recommend that enterprises deploy
both a combination of connection-level protection combined with highly
accurate content analysis features to combat growing spam volume. Proofpoint's
connection management solution, Proofpoint Dynamic Reputation(TM), combines
machine learning analysis of both global and local reputation data to provide
maximum protection against malicious IP addresses. Proofpoint Dynamic
Reputation not only sheds most of the load associated with spam volumes, but
it incrementally increases the 99.8%+ effectiveness delivered by Proofpoint's
anti-spam engine, powered by Proofpoint MLX(TM) machine learning technology.
Though a strong connection-management strategy goes a long way in
addressing the volume issue, Proofpoint also offers the widest range of
options to dynamically and seamlessly apply additional resources. For
companies leveraging VMware infrastructure in their datacenters, the
Proofpoint Messaging Security Gateway(TM)-Virtual Edition appliance can
dynamically add capacity. In addition, the Proofpoint on Demand(TM) hosted
service offering delivers unlimited capacity and protection against bursts in
spam volume by shifting the burden of spam protection to the network "cloud".
Proofpoint offers a free spam audit for organizations that want to better
understand the impact of spam and potential solutions for rising spam volumes.
To request a Proofpoint spam audit and download Proofpoint's connection
management whitepaper, Next-generation Reputation Technology, please visit:
http://www.proofpoint.com/id/spamaudit/index.php
About Proofpoint, Inc.
Proofpoint provides unified email security and data loss prevention
solutions for enterprises, universities, government organizations and ISPs to
defend against inbound threats such as spam and viruses, prevent leaks of
confidential and private information across all protocols, and encrypt
sensitive emails. Proofpoint's products are controlled by a single management
and policy console and are powered by Proofpoint MLX(TM) technology, an
advanced machine learning system developed by Proofpoint scientists and
engineers. Proofpoint provides the most scalable and flexible deployment model
including: hardware appliance, virtual appliance, hosted services and
software. For more information, please visit http://www.proofpoint.com.
Proofpoint, Proofpoint MLX, Proofpoint on Demand, Proofpoint Messaging
Security Gateway and Proofpoint Dynamic Reputation are trademarks or
registered trademarks Proofpoint, Inc. All other trademarks contained herein
are the property of their respective owners.
SOURCE Proofpoint, Inc.

Sharon Dratch of Davies Murphy Group, Inc., +1-781-418-2425,
pr@proofpoint.com, for Proofpoint; or Marty Tacktill of Proofpoint,
+1-408-850-4110, mtacktill@proofpoint.com