E-mail traffic volumes are set to double within the next few months if the recent growth rate in spam messages continues, according to a warning issued by e-mail management firm E-mail Systems.
While spam has been an ongoing problem for many years, E-mail Systems said the rate of growth in spam messages has suddenly accelerated since July 2006, leading to total e-mail traffic growing by between 25 and 35 percent each month since then.
Businesses relying on local filtering to block spam and e-mail-borne viruses may find their systems overwhelmed by the volume of incoming traffic, the company warned.
“With such an exponential rise in traffic since July, it is probable that many e-mail users could be looking at a very severe downturn in speed of data provision if this trend continues at the current pace,” said Neil Hammerton, chief executive of E-mail Systems.
Last year, internet service providers (ISPs) faced growing calls from businesses to do more to block spam before it reached customers.
E-mail Systems attributes the surging volume of junk e-mails to a change in tactics by the spammers. Single e-mails are no longer being distributed to a large number of recipients, but are instead being sent to smaller groups of addresses with subtle changes in content to evade detection by filters.
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