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Brightmail Reports on Spam Trends of 2003

Explosive Spam Growth Reveals More Criminal and Offensive Content

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 18 /PRNewswire/ — Brightmail, the anti-spam market
leader, today announced the top trends in spam for 2003. Brightmail filtered
more than 800 billion email messages in 2003 — 15% of the world’s Internet
email — and as a result sees more spam than anyone else in the industry. The
company’s Business Intelligence Division tracks trends and occurrences in spam
messages on a monthly basis for its more than 300 million end users worldwide.

Top Trends in 2003

#1: Explosion of Spam and "Disguises"

In 2003, Brightmail saw spam surpass legitimate email — growing to more
than 56% of all Internet email, up from just 40% a year ago. This growth
can be attributed to a greater number of spammers, availability of easy-
to-use spamming tools and a reduction in the response rates of email
users around the globe. As a result, the anti-spam software industry
experienced a boom as enterprises and consumers looked to clean out their
inboxes. The combination of spam growth and filtering software also led to an
increased awareness around "false positives" (valid emails mistakenly
identified as spam) and the need to be as accurate as possible to avoid
filtering legitimate messages. False positives are not only missed
communications, but often can represent missed business opportunities.
Additionally, there was a significant increase in attempts and techniques
to hide information — sender, origin, links from within the message — from
the recipients of spam messages, especially within HTML-based email.
Brightmail saw spammers change their techniques to evade spam filters –
injecting legitimate words to get around Bayesian technology or increasing the
amount of randomization in every part of the message. Recent trends in
randomization represent some of the most sophisticated techniques yet, from
variation in the HTML code to random text inserted in the same color as the
background color (e.g. white text on white background).

#2: Email Fraud and Brand Spoofing Surges

While "Nigerian Hoax" spam messages — one of the early email fraud
techniques — have been circulating for years, identity fraud and brand
spoofing spam exploded in 2003. Fraudulent email messages are those messages
that appear to be sent from a legitimate company’s website or domain address,
but in fact are the work of spammers hijacking a company’s brand to attract
the attention of potential customers. Responses to these messages often allow
spammers to gain personal information. As spammers looked to exploit well-
known brand names for their own individual financial gain, Brightmail
pioneered the fight against fraudulent email in 2003, helping to provide
protection from brand damage to major companies around the globe, including
banks and other financial institutions.

#3: Blended Threats

Brightmail measured more blended threats — the bundling of viruses or
trojans with spam — in 2003. The biggest spam trojans of 2003 were
Win32.Hogle.A and SoBig.F. 2003 also witnessed trojans, such as
Win32.Mimail.L, that were designed to launch denial of service attacks against
anti-spam blacklist sites.

#4: Savvy Spammers, Same Junk Mail

While overall spam volumes and the percentage of spam in inboxes
increased, there were a handful of spam messages that kept appearing and re-
appearing — in many iterations — over the last 12 months. The most common
spam messages, with example subject lines, included:

1. Subject: Get Bigger, 100% Proven Results
The market for body part enlargement has apparently not been saturated.
Spam messages offering these products and other "adult-related"
products and services were the most prevalent in 2003.

2. Subject: Re: You can order PAIN MEDS, Anti-depressants, Weight Loss
Meds Online Offers to purchase prescription drugs of all varieties –
from prescription pain relievers to HGH to sexual performance enhancing
drugs — were also among the most visible in 2003.

3. Subject: Needs your assistance
The "Nigerian Hoax" and its many iterations of it were still among the
most popular spam messages being circulated, despite the fact that it’s
a well-known hoax.

4. Subject: Mortgage rates/refinancing — Mortgage rates at 40 year low
With interest rates hitting an all-time low in 2003, it’s not
surprising to see mortgage-related spam and offers for other types of
financing were among the most commonly sent messages.

5. Subject: Print Ink — Act Now, save 85% on all ink cartridges
Offers for inexpensive printer cartridges were still a frequent sight
among spam messages.

6. Subject: Iraqi Most Wanted Cards — These WILL sell out!
The war in Iraq and the recent capture of Saddam Hussein sustained the
momentum of this spam message in 2003.

"Brightmail saw spam grow exponentially in 2003 — in both volume and in
sophistication," said Enrique Salem, president and CEO of Brightmail.
"Despite an anti-spam legislation effort in many countries around the world
and a greater general awareness of the spam problem in 2003, Brightmail
predicts that spam will continue to consume greater portions of inboxes in
2004, reaching as much as 65% of all Internet email. We also expect spammers
to continue to change their techniques in attempts to evade filtering
technology, but as the technology leader, we are prepared to face that
challenge."

About Brightmail

Brightmail, the anti-spam market leader, delivers anti-spam technology
that makes messaging environments secure and manageable. PC Magazine’s
EDITORS CHOICE for best enterprise anti-spam software, Brightmail Anti-Spam
protects the email networks of businesses, government agencies, and service
providers, blocking unsolicited bulk email, or "spam," while assuring that
legitimate mail is reliably delivered. Brightmail protects over 1,500 of the
world’s leading enterprises, including Avaya, eBay, Bechtel, Booz Allen
Hamilton, Cisco, Cypress Semiconductors, Deutsche Bank, Eastman, Lucent
Technologies, Macromedia, Microsoft, Motorola, SAS and Terra Lycos.

Brightmail also provides spam protection for the leading Internet service
providers, including AT&T WorldNet, EarthLink, MSN, TelstraClear, and Verizon
Online. Brightmail now protects more than 300 million service provider
customers, and 5 million enterprise email users worldwide. Headquartered in
San Francisco, California, Brightmail is a private, profitable company backed
by world-class investors and partners. For more information, visit
http://www.brightmail.com.

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