While Smith didn't expect to see another tripling of DHAs in 2005, he did warn that the practice will pick up. "They'll become more severe, as spammers turn to harvesting because they're finding it harder to locate valid addresses in other ways. People are getting smart, and they're not disclosing their e-mail or adding addresses to Web sites," he said.
Other information culled from Postini's report included confirmation that legislation, lawsuits, and criminal trials didn't put a dent in spam during 2004. For the year as a whole, the percentage of e-mail categorized as spam remained fairly constant at around 80 percent.
"We've thrown everything but the kitchen sink at spam, yet it's still with us," said Smith.
In fact, if one includes other unwanted mail attempts -- messages not usually considered spam -- such as DHAs and virus-infected mail, then the percentage of junk climbs above 90 percent, Smith said.
Postini's numbers also showed that while phishing attacks garner headlines, they actually account for only about 1 percent of all spam. (In comparison, virus-infected messages comprised about 1.5 percent of all messages in 2004, a tripling over 2003's 0.5 percent.)
By combining resources and expertise, the AI-Enabled ICT Workforce Consortium will offer a blueprint for how industries can adapt to an AI-dominated future.
IT leaders should heed the guidance of cybersecurity insurance providers who think businesses should prioritize security education, incident preparedness, regular internal audits, and ongoing vulnerability scanning and patching.
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