Intercage demise linked to 8 percent decline in spam

MessageLabs analysis highlights an eight percent decline in spam since August due in large part to the demise of California-based ISP Intercage on September 20. However, MessageLabs anticipates this recent decline will be short-lived in anticipation of holiday spam season.

MessageLabs expert Mark Sunner from noted that the addresses on Intercage’s network range were being used to host command and control channels for botnets. In disrupting these botnets, the level of spam activity toward the end of September was severely impaired. Sunner added that he doesn’t expect this dip to last long, as this time of year is notorious for increased levels of spam activity as spammers ramp up for the holiday season.

In September 2008, the global ratio of spam in email traffic from new and previously unknown bad sources was 70.1 percent (1 in 1.43 emails), a decrease of 8.1 percent on the previous month. Spam levels for Q3 2008 have decreased by 1.1 percent since Q2 and are at similar levels to Q4 2007.