ITWire

And unlike previous months, spam levels during October did not drop below 90 percent, in fact the lowest level recorded was 93.79 percent at the beginning of the month, according to ScanSoft. In contrast, virus traffic reached an all time low, accounting for just 0.08 percent of business email traffic during the last month.

"Two factors seem to behind the increase," ScanSoft said. "Firstly the spammers are still finding it difficult to get through filters and are using volume as tactic. Secondly and more sadly, they must still be making money, which means a significant number of people are still not taking sufficient care over the protection they afford their computer and therefore their personal details."