Spam rates in Ireland hit record high

The rate of spam emails targeted at Irish inboxes in March was the highest ever recorded according to the latest statistics from technology company IE Internet.

The steady increase of spam over the past years have seen spam rates in Ireland increase from 21% in March 2004 to more than 64% last month.

"Spam is big business," said Ken O'Driscoll, chief technical officer with IE Internet. "The fact that Ireland has seen such a dramatic increase of spam in the past three years means that the emails themselves are getting better at convincing people to part with money.

“Also, spammers have been very quick to adapt. They have found ways to avoid detection by many traditional spam filters.”

The statistics show that the United States was the top source of spam again last month, accounting for nearly 20% more spam than it did in February.

The virus rate remained low at almost 7% for March. There are very few new viruses on the scene and therefore, few new virus infections.

"It will be interesting to see how the virus rate progresses over the next year as more new computers come with Microsoft Vista, which has enhanced virus protection," said O'Driscoll.

Statistics compiled by Irish hosting company IE Internet.com Ltd, based on managing and protecting more than 35,000 business email users.