Email Malware Threat Grows

International . In the last six months, malware transmitted via email has increased by 23.7%, according to a new report from Symantec, which indicates that one in 280 emails analyzed in July 2011 included malicious elements.

Symantec analysts say that in such a short period the growth of this threat is alarming, since the number of variants of different malware ceps has grown up to 25 times more compared to the previous six months.

The executable attachment in a ZIP file becomes one of the most common ways the virus is being sent, as it is sometimes disguised as an Office document or a PDF.

Cellular telephony is another sector that also suffers from the problem, according to Symantec, since phishing is attacking in different ways, through the protocol pages of wireless applications and in the use of compromised domains.

Finally, the study indicates that email spam traffic increased by 4.9% more compared to June 2011, for a total of 77.8%.