2006.11.29 Daily Security Reading
by Rodney Campbell on Nov.29, 2006, under Security
With cyber attacks continuing to make headlines, companies have responded by rapidly increasing IT security spending even as overall IT budgets have remained flat or declined. Gartner predicts that security software spending will have a compound annual growth rate of 16.2% from 2005-2009 with information security spending representing approximately 6% of overall IT budgets.
Criminal gangs using hijacked computers are behind a surge in unwanted e-mails peddling sex, drugs and stock tips. The number of "spam" messages has tripled since June and now accounts for as many as nine out of 10 e-mails sent worldwide, according to U.S. email security company Postini. As Christmas approaches, the daily trawl through in-boxes clogged with offers of fake Viagra, loans and sex aids is tipped to take even longer. "E-mail systems are overloaded or melting down trying to keep up with all the spam," said Dan Druker, a vice president at Postini. His company has detected 7 billion spam e-mails worldwide in November compared to 2.5 billion in June. Spam in Britain has risen by 50 percent in the last two months alone, according to Internet security company SurfControl.