Have you noticed that you’ve been receiving less emails about cheap, offshore financial opportunities and penis pills? No, spammers haven’t just decided to leave you alone. What you’re seeing is the decline of spam emails in general, worldwide.
Kaspersky Lab has a new chart detailing something that we should all be thrilled to see: we’re winning the fight against spam. Better technology, better filters, and a more informed population is helping to eradicate spam messages from inboxes all over the globe.
In 2008, spam accounted for over 90% of all email traffic, worldwide. Just think about that for a second. That’s a lot of spam. Since then, spam has been on the decline (with some exceptions). The spam share has really started to plummet since mid-2011, though.
Their latest report from the end of 2012 shows that spam now accounts for 67% of all global email traffic. Two-thirds may still seem like a lot, but it represents a significant decline from what it was just 4 years ago.
Of course, email isn’t the only place that spammers live. The rise of the social web has produced an all new breeding ground for spammers. One recent study suggested that up to 40% of all social media accounts worldwide were created with spamming in mind.
Now, go clean out your spam filter.
[Kaspersky Lab via The Economist]