(MSPAlliance) – Wednesday, April 26, 2006 – The increased use of e-mail has made it an even more attractive target for hackers, according to an IronPort Systems’ < ?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Threat Operation Center study. While spam remains the largest category of “hostile mail,” bounce messages, or ones that are returned to sender, make up 11 percent of hostile mail, which also includes viruses and phishing.
An e-mail notice appears in a user’s inbox saying that the message could not be sent because it contained a virus, often coming from an unknown e-mail address. Users call for IT support, but there is usually no need because the e-mail is a misdirected bounce, another way for hackers to infiltrate networks.
Increased e-mail usage and more stringent compliance requirements are causing storage and archiving problems for companies. More than 50 percent of Fortune 500 companies experienced mail service shutdowns or slowdowns due to misdirected bounces, while IT costs on bounce messaging are more than $5 billion per year. Companies should be wary of hostile mail threats, especially growing ones such as misdirected bounce messages.