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Date Posted: 23:02:05 11/25/04 Thu
Author: Dummy
Subject: Spam may swamp SA

Spam may swamp SA
26/11/2004 08:04 - (SA)

Leo Kok


Johannesburg - Electronic junk mail is growing at an alarming rate in South Africa and could catch companies and internet service providers on the wrong foot it they do not take urgent action.

According to David Feeney, business development manager of Brightmail in Europe, the Mid-East and Africa, figures from earlier this year indicate that approximately 15%-20% of all e-mail messages sent to the region could be regarded as junk mail.

It is expected that this could rise to between 40% and 50% over the short term.

In South Africa initial investigations showed that up to 60% of all e-mail was spam.

Feeney says the face of junk mail has changed.

It no longer contained "harmless" advertisements for Viagra or pornography.

"We continuously encounter more and more junk mail requesting the reader to go to a website and enter his information.

Trojan horses

"Further, there are several viruses disguised as so-called 'Trojan horses' that are distributed via e-mail," Feeney says.

The first example is known as "phishing", or electronic fishing.

Criminals create an e-mail carrying the banner of a well-known financial institution, normally a bank, and request the reader to verify his particulars.

In this manner they obtain access to the personal particulars of a person without him/her being any wiser.

Feeney says 5% of all e-mails last year contained phishing messages.

In the first half of this year the figure jumped to 16%.

Apart from viruses and phishing the creators of junk mail are moving from the US to areas where it is difficult to crack down on them.

These are regions such as Eastern Europe and the Far-East, which are supported by the use of new languages such as German.

According to Feeney, who is visiting South Africa to create consciousness of the dangers of junk mail, Brightmail monthly scans approximately 130 billion e-mail messages.

The group identifies spam and deletes it before it reaches the intended destination.

Apart from filtering, the group creates new "rules" for its worldwide electronic scanners, informing them of new forms of spam and of what has to be deleted.

Brightmail is an affiliate of the Symantec anti-virus group.

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