MessageLabs Provides Current Security Threat Data To RSA Conference Attendees; Spam Grows Nearly 10 Percent in January, Whereas Email-Borne Viruses Declined Despite Nyxem.E Outbreak.

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Alex Shipp, Renowned Anti-Virus Expert, to Speak at the RSA Conference on the Evolution of Crimeware

MessageLabs, the leading provider of messaging security and management services to businesses worldwide, today announced the results of its first monthly Intelligence Report of 2006. Among key findings, the report found that in January, spam increased nearly 10 percent while email borne viruses - including the prolific Nyxem.E virus - actually decreased from December totals. The report is being released in conjunction with the RSA Conference in San Jose, CA, February 13-17, 2006.

--Spam Protection: In January, the global ratio of spam in email traffic from new and unknown bad sources, for which the recipient addresses were deemed valid, was 66.6 percent (1 in 1.5), an increase of 9.2 percent over the previous month.

--Anti-Virus and Trojan Protection: The global ratio of email-borne viruses in email traffic from new and previously unknown bad sources and destined for valid recipients, was 1 in 41.7 (2.4 percent), a decrease of 5.4 percent since the previous month.

--Nyxem.E (also referred to as MyWife.D, BlackWorm and Kama Sutra): MessageLabs stopped over 4 million copies of Nyxem.E during the first week of its spread. The worm was scheduled to begin destroying files on infected machines and networks on Friday, February 3, but failed to cause the anticipated impact. MessageLabs believes this is largely due to many infected computer users and businesses conducting extensive virus 'clean up' in the intervening days. MessageLabs observed a worm 'clean-up' rate of around 11,000 IP addresses per day.

--Phishing: January shows a decline in the proportion of phishing attacks in emails following the 2005 Holiday season. However, the ratio of phishing as a proportion of malware increased by 4.9 percent, and accounted for 10.6 percent of malware intercepted by MessageLabs in January.

--Botnets/Malicious Sources: STMP validation identifies unwanted email originating from known spam and virus sending sources, where the source can unequivocally be identified as an open proxy or a botnet, and rejects the connection accordingly. In January, on average, 6.8 percent of inbound messages were intercepted from botnets and other known malicious sources and rejected as a consequence.

The full report can be accessed at http://www.messagelabs.com/Threat_Watch.

MessageLabs at RSA

MessageLabs will be showcasing its full suite of messaging security solutions throughout the week at RSA (booth #2270). In addition, Alex Shipp, MessageLabs Imagineer and senior anti-virus technologist, will be participating in a panel discussion titled, "The Rise in Crimeware," along with four of the world's most respected anti-virus experts. Shipp will address how security threats have changed from the days when there was no real personal gain involved, to an era where there is real financial and often, physical, impact.

"The Rise in Crimeware"
February 16, 2006 - 2:00 p.m. PST
SJCC - Room J2

About MessageLabs

MessageLabs is the world's leading provider of messaging security and management services with more than 13,000 clients and offices in eight countries. For more information, please visit www.messagelabs.com.