Security firm says spammers ahead of the game
The threat of e-mail viruses, Internet scams and other attacks by spammers grew worse last year, despite stepped-up defense efforts by technology firms and government, an e-mail security firm reported Wednesday.
Spam accounted for about four out of five e-mail messages sent during most of 2004, according to a study by Postini Inc., a Redwood City, Calif., company that screens about 400 million e-mails a day for businesses.
"Despite throwing everything but the kitchen sink at this problem throughout the year, spam was steady as a rock," said Chris Smith, Postini's senior product marketing director.
The proportion of virus-infected e-mail tripled to 1.5 percent last year, Smith said.
