A special feature report brought out by Cyberoam, the innovator of identity based UTM solutions, reveals that around 70% of spam attacks were on Yahoo (27%), Facebook (23%) and Gmail (19%). The first of its kind Internet threats trend report has been prepared in collaboration with Cyberoam’s partner, Commtouch.

The report highlights how email accounts have now become the prime target of spammers, and the best of services aren’t safe. Users of these three mail accounts are more prone to spam attacks now.

Spammers have started shifting their activities from botnets to compromised email accounts; post the take down of Rustock botnet family by the Microsoft Consortium which used to occupy more than 30% of global spam space.

Access from public Wi-Fi, easy to guess passwords and links sent by friends on Facebook have lead to increased compromises. Disturbingly, 23% users believed it to be a one time incident and did nothing to report the problem or remediate their account.

Videos with text such as “check this out!” or “I am sure you can't watch this after 10 seconds” have been doing the rounds on Facebook. Users are advised not to click these links even if sent by a close friend. Cyberoam has also advised users to a trusted password manager that stores all passwords and syncs them with all your PCs, smartphones and tablets. Un-checking the “Remember Me” box while logging into your mail or Facebook is also stressed upon.

Emphasising on how trust is a main tool used by spammers to invade email accounts, Abhilash Sonwane, Sr. VP, Product Management, Cyberoam said, “Trust is a major factor behind spammers switching tactics to email and social media. Most of us will click on a malware link, if it comes from a close friend on Facebook. The use of these attacks for spam and scams are expected to increase in future. Users must take basic precautions when they access these in public domains as well as observing sound password management."