Messages containing potentially damaging code still only affects a relatively small share of total e-mail volume, yet the share rose from 1.29 per thousand in July to 7.56 per thousand in October. At first glance this appears to be a small percentage, but in fact only one of these messages is enough to cause serious damage. In addition to the consistent threat of picking up a virus on the internet, classic virus-mail attacks are once again gaining in significance. Since July such attacks have increased by 586%. Those hit include both private homes and company infrastructures.
Amongst the viruses registered between August and October, Retarus‘ data centres have identified over 83% as Trojans. Every 7 th e-mail was an attempt at phishing for the recipient’s private and confidential information. Retarus also found that 3% of the cases comprised worm attacks.
New Virus Strategies
Not only have the amount of virus attacks increased, but the methods employed by virus authors have also changed. Oliver Pannenbäcker, Vice President Managed Services at Retarus, remarks: "We have observed increasing interplay between viruses and spam. This mainly concerns e-mails identified as carrying phishing viruses, but other viruses now also appear to be following this intrusion strategy. The relatively low share of all attacks identified as phishing in our analysis results from the fact that the majority of these messages are not netted and disabled by virus scanners, but have already been identified and rejected as unwanted marketing (junk mail) by the spam filters located upstream. The real danger is mostly also not contained in the e-mail message itself, but rather on an external website which directly connects to a link in the spam message. As virus scanners, which are limited to analyzing e-mails, are naturally not able to assist in such cases, it becomes all the more important to gain effective protection against spam mails. Seemingly harmless e-mails lie like time-bombs in your digital inbox, waiting patiently for an unsuspecting user to come along and call up the infected internet page and unknowingly allow the virus into his network. A well-functioning spam filter knows the URLs of dangerous websites and filters out messages containing dubious links."
Virus Protection Not Always Failsafe
After years of experience, Retarus‘ security experts have observed that the speed at which viruses are developed has increased significantly. Within ever decreasing time periods new viruses and virus mutations are spilling out into e-mail inboxes around the globe. This necessarily creates a situation in which even the supposedly best virus protection could fail if the scanner’s virus definitions do not recognize and reliably exclude a new virus. Similarly, it might happen that familiar threats are not recognized as such.
In order to achieve the ultimate level of security, it is advisable to employ more than one virus scanner. Naturally the various scanner technologies must perfectly aligned to ensure compatibility and to remain up-to-date at all times. Bernhard Hecker, Head of Product Management at Retarus, explains in more detail: "It has been known to occur that one scanner will recognize a threat, while another scanner may let the virus pass undetected. Especially companies should operate various technologies in parallel to increase security. Due to the great deal of effort required in this process, it is highly recommendable for companies to turn to a professional Managed Mail Provider to secure their e-mail communication. They do not only offer highly efficient protection against spam, but often run several virus scanners in parallel. At Retarus‘ data centres all incoming and outgoing messages are run through four different virus scanners. Our monitoring has shown us that only the use of various scanner technologies in conjunction can provide efficient and sustainable protection against the countless threats posed by infected e-mails."
About Retarus
Retarus Managed Services is the leading European provider of professional messaging solutions, and has been developing and offering services for electronic corporate communication since 1992. The company’s portfolio focuses on large and medium-sized corporations, and over 3,000 international customers in various sectors (including; Allianz, Bayer, Honda, Sony, O2 and Linde) use the Retarus Messaging Services with absolute confidence. 20 of the DAX30 corporations use Retarus Solutions. Optimized business-process communication with maximum security and top-rate performance are what Retarus provides to their customers. The company operates its solutions directly with the user, or hosts them as a managed service in their high performance data centres. Around 200 staff employed at the headquarters in Munich, and in the subsidiaries in Dubai, Lyon, Madrid, Milan, Zurich and Vienna take care of customer satisfaction day to day, ensuring smooth communication processes for their clients.
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