Checked your spam filter lately? It’s probably chock-a-block full, if it’s doing its job. That’s because the annoying, unsolicited messages now make up over 90% of all missives on corporate networks.

That staggering fact comes to you courtesy of MessageLabs, now a part of the electronic security behemoth Symantec.

MessageLabs’ recent Intelligence monthly report featured these highlights — or maybe we should call them lowlights:

• Spam made up 90.4% of all e-mail in May 2009 (that’s an increase of 5.1% since April)
• Viruses –- One in 317.8 e-mails in May contained malware (a decrease of 0.01% since April)
• Phishing –- One in 404.7 emails comprised a phishing attack (an increase of 0.11% since April)
• Malicious websites –- 1,149 new sites blocked per day (a decrease of 67.7% since April)
• Spammers continue to abuse reputable domains and web-based malware more likely to be found on older domains
• Geographic location determines at what time of day you receive spam (if you are located in the US, spam
  activity peaks between 9 – 10 a.m. local time, and trails off to much lower levels overnight. Europeans are likely to receive a steady stream of spam throughout their day, while users in the Asia-Pacific region are likely to start their day with an inbox already full of spam, with only small amounts trickling in after this point until the evening), and
• “Russian” spam squarely rooted in Cutwail botnet.

Who’s getting hit hardest? The report’s “vertical” trends showed:

• In May, the most spammed industry sector with a spam rate of 89.2 % was the Automotive sector.
• Spam levels reached 88.1 percent for the Healthcare sector, and 87.9 % for the Agricultural sector; 87.5 % for Manufacturing and 87.4 %  for Retail.
• Virus activity in the Education sector rose by 0.04% and remains positioned as the most targeted vertical with 1 in 112.5 e-mails being infected.
• Virus levels for the IT Services sector were 1 in 249.1, 1 in 433.5 for Retail, 1 in 211.0 for the Public Sector and 1 in 466.9 for Finance.

Tags: e-mail, electronic security, Intelligence Monthly Report, MessageLabs, phishing, spam, Symantec, viruses