Cisco informs that cybercriminals increasingly launch targeted attacks and spam is not as popular as used to be. Spam dropped to the lowest level since 2007. In August 2010 an average daily spam number was 379 billion. Last month the average dropped to 124 billion. Spam is less lucrative than targeted attacks.
To earn money using spam cybercriminals has to lure many people, while to earn money via targeted attacks requires to dupe one or few persons.
The other reason of spam level decrease is attributable to police and security companies cooperation. In last few years many botnets were destroyed, including such big as Rustock, Bredolab or Mega-D.
Cisco says that gains from traditional mass-mailed spam dropped between June 2010 and June 2011 from 1,1 billion to 500 million.

Source: SC Magazine
21.12.2011