Commtouch Reports February Spam Trends: The EU is Taking Over.MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- Commtouch (Nasdaq:CTCHC) --Significant 6-month increase in European European emanating from or pertaining to Europe. European bat lyssavirus see lyssavirus. European beech tree fagussylvaticus. European blastomycosis see cryptococcosis. spam E-mail that is not requested. Also known as "unsolicited commercial e-mail" (UCE), "unsolicited bulk e-mail" (UBE), "gray mail" and just plain "junk mail," the term is both a noun (the e-mail message) and a verb (to send it). -- particularly from France, Spain Spain, Span. España (āspä`nyä), officially Kingdom of Spain, constitutional monarchy (2005 est. pop. 40,341,000), 194,884 sq mi (504,750 sq km), including the Balearic and Canary islands, SW Europe. , Germany Germany (jûr`mənē), Ger. Deutschland, officially Federal Republic of Germany, republic (2005 est. pop. 82,431,000), 137,699 sq mi (356,733 sq km). , UK --Europe has become a greater source of spam than the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. --Spammers try to tranquilize tran·quil·ize or tran·quil·lize v. 1. To make tranquil; pacify. 2. To sedate or relieve of anxiety or tension by the administration of a drug. 3. To become tranquil; relax. 4. us: anti-anxiety drugs are the most popular spam content Commtouch(R) (Nasdaq:CTCHC), a leading provider of real-time 1. real-time - Describes an application which requires a program to respond to stimuli within some small upper limit of response time (typically milli- or microseconds). Process control at a chemical plant is the classic example. email security solutions, today announced that Europe has become the greatest source of spam. The announcement was based on data from the Commtouch Spam Detection Center, which analyzed an·a·lyze tr.v. an·a·lyzed, an·a·lyz·ing, an·a·lyz·es 1. To examine methodically by separating into parts and studying their interrelations. 2. Chemistry To make a chemical analysis of. 3. hundreds of millions of spam messages in the month of February 2005. During the past six months, there has been a marked rise in spam outbreaks originating from Europe, particularly form western European countries such as Germany, France, the UK and Spain. With spam levels in the United States holding steady, this results in an overall rise in global spam levels: On an average February day, 967,437 separate outbreaks have been distributed (up 94% from parallel month last year). "These trends contradict con·tra·dict v. con·tra·dict·ed, con·tra·dict·ing, con·tra·dicts v.tr. 1. To assert or express the opposite of (a statement). 2. To deny the statement of. See Synonyms at deny. prevalent assumptions: that spam is primarily sent from developing areas," says Commtouch Director of Product Marketing Oren Drori. "In fact, Commtouch analysis shows that the wealthy countries of Western Europe Western Europe The countries of western Europe, especially those that are allied with the United States and Canada in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (established 1949 and usually known as NATO). are the source of more spam than developing eastern European counterparts. The same trend can also be seen in the Asia Pacific region: richer countries simply spam more." The leading free-mail providers continue to be the domains that are most commonly used by spammers: yahoo.com (8.58%), hotmail.com (4.33%) and msn.com (3.41%). Western Europe Takes the Lead In the month of February, the Commtouch Lab detected that spam was sent from 172 countries. Europe accounted for 24.70% of total spam, the bulk of it (21.85%) from European Union European Union (EU), name given since the ratification (Nov., 1993) of the Treaty of European Union, or Maastricht Treaty, to the European Community countries. Japan and Korea followed closely, which were together the source of 24.24% of spam. Only 22.80% of spam originated in the United States.
The Source of Spam: How the EU Won the World
Europe (1) 24.70% (1) European Union countries: 21.85%;
Top spam-distributors: France, Spain,
Germany, UK
Japan-Korea 24.24%
US 22.80%
Greater China (2) 14.45% (2) Including: China, Taiwan, Hong-Kong
South America 6.03%
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Rest of World 7.78%
The Source of Spam: Breakdown by Country
1 United States 22.81%
2 South Korea 21.76%
3 China 12.54%
4 France 4.42%
5 Spain 3.28%
6 Brazil 3.04%
7 Germany 2.84%
8 United Kingdom 2.70%
9 Japan 2.48%
10 Canada 2.20%
11 Poland 2.19%
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Others 19.74%
The Content of Spam: tranquilizers rule
A full 35.50% of February spam fell into the pharmaceutical category,
with tranquilizers, anti-anxiety drugs and anorexics gaining
popularity. "Judging from February trends, one might conclude that the
world is getting more anxious, and that what sells best over the net
are cut-rate prescription drugs," notes Drori. "A few months ago you
could be sure that Viagra would capture the lion's share of this
segment, but today it comes in second after the
tranquilizer/anti-anxiety category (e.g., Valium, Xanax and Ativan)."
Top 10 Spam Categories by Subject:
1 Drugs 35.50%
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2 Shopping 12.33%
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3 Software Sales 9.46%
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4 Pornography 8.92%
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5 Mortgage/Refinance 7.38%
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6 Financial 7.13%
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7 Enlargement 5.04%
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8 Work from Home/ Jobs 1.38%
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9 University Degree 1.04%
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10 LookGood/Health 1.04%
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China: The Unchallenged Leader in Spam Hosting
Spam hosting sites elaborate the marketing points of the original spam
message, and facilitate the actual sale. In the month of February,
Commtouch Lab registered that 68.05% of spam hosting sites were
located in China. With 16.45% of spam sites hosted in Hong Kong,
Greater China holds the dubious honor of being the unchallenged global
leader in spam hosting.
Top 5 spam-hosting countries:
1 China 68.05%
2 Hong Kong 16.45%
3 Russian Federation 9.70%
4 United States 3.64%
5 Brazil 0.97%
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Others 1.20%
About Commtouch Commtouch Software Ltd. (Nasdaq:CTCHC) is dedicated to protecting and preserving the integrity of the world's most important communications tool -- email. A global developer and provider of proprietary anti-spam solutions, Commtouch has an installed base of over 25 million users. The company's core technologies, including RPD RPD Rapid RPD Radiation Protection Dosimetry RPD Rapid Product Development RPD Rochester Police Department RPD Recurrent Pattern Detection (Commtouch anti-spam engine) RPD Relative Percent Difference RPD Removable Partial Denture (TM) - Recurrent recurrent /re·cur·rent/ (re-kur´ent) [L. recurrens returning] 1. running back, or toward the source. 2. returning after remissions. re·cur·rent adj. 1. Pattern Detection, reflect Commtouch's 14 years of experience developing messaging software. Commtouch solutions are incorporated into OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) The rebranding of equipment and selling it. The term initially referred to the company that made the products (the "original" manufacturer), but eventually became widely used to refer to the organization that buys the products and applications and are also sold through channels and resellers. Commtouch is headquartered in Netanya, Israel and has a subsidiary in Mountain View, CA. For more information, see: www.commtouch.com. This press release contains forward-looking statements forward-looking statement A projected financial statement based on management expectations. A forward-looking statement involves risks with regard to the accuracy of assumptions underlying the projections. , including projections about our business, within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. For example, statements in the future tense future tense n. A verb tense expressing future time. Noun 1. future tense - a verb tense that expresses actions or states in the future future , and statements including words such as "expect," "plan," "estimate," anticipate," or "believe" are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on information available to us at the time of the release; we assume no obligation to update any of them. The statements in this release are not guarantees of future performance and actual results could differ materially from our current expectations as a result of numerous factors, including the failure to satisfy the conditions imposed by the Nasdaq Listing Qualifications Panel for the continued listing of Commtouch shares on The Nasdaq SmallCap Market; business conditions and growth or deterioration de·te·ri·o·ra·tion n. The process or condition of becoming worse. in the Internet Internet Publicly accessible computer network connecting many smaller networks from around the world. It grew out of a U.S. Defense Department program called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), established in 1969 with connections between computers at the market, commerce and the general economy, both domestic as well as international; fewer than expected new-partner relationships; competitive factors including pricing pressures; technological developments, and products offered by competitors; the ability of our OEM partners to successfully penetrate markets with products integrated with Commtouch technology; a slower than expected acceptance rate for real time AV solutions in general and the Commtouch virus detection engine in particular; availability of qualified staff for expansion; and technological difficulties and resource constraints CONSTRAINTS - A language for solving constraints using value inference. ["CONSTRAINTS: A Language for Expressing Almost-Hierarchical Descriptions", G.J. Sussman et al, Artif Intell 14(1):1-39 (Aug 1980)]. encountered in developing new products, such as the Commtouch virus detection engine, as well as those risks described in the text of this press release or the company's Annual Reports on Form 20-F and reports on Form 6-K, which are available through www.sec.gov. Recurrent Pattern Detection and RPD are trademarks and Commtouch is a registered trademark of Commtouch Software Ltd. |
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