After Respite, Spam Now 94% of All Email

Like it or not, spam has made a comeback. Unwanted junk email is back up to 94% of all traffic, according to Google’s anti-spam Postini division. Spammers suffered a setback in November, when web backbone providers banned McColo Corp., a server spammers used to coordinate attacks, the New York Times reminds. That led to a dramatic, and, alas, all-too-brief 70% dip in spam traffic.

“By far, it was the most dramatic event we have ever seen,” said Postini’s marketing manager. This year, however, spam volumes have increased at a 1.2%-per-day clip, as spammers construct peer-to-peer spamming botnets, a less-centralized, and hence less vulnerable, alternative to control hubs like McColo. (More spam stories.)