Storm Spam Peaks at 10 Each Morning

At its most prolific this month, malicious Storm spam accounted for 16 percent, or one in six, of all e-mails.

"The gang controlling the Storm botnet is clearly determined; the spam e-mails which spread the malware are tailored to grab your attention by referring to timely events such as Valentine's Day or breaking news stories," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. "The large number of compromised PCs in Asia, Europe and USA kickstart a new barrage of malicious spam as they are turned on at approximately 10 a.m. each morning."

In 2007, over 50,000 variants of the Storm Trojan were identified by SophosLabs, and with the hackers spamming out new versions so regularly, it is imperative that all businesses ensure their spam and anti-malware solutions are proactively defended and up to the task of stopping both known and unknown malware before it can wreak havoc.

"Not only do computers need to be protected from this malicious spam, designed to break into their PC and hand control over to financially-motivated hackers, but they also need to be properly defended to make sure that they are not responsible for sending the spam in the first place," continued Cluley. "The entire Internet community is suffering because people have not properly defended their PCs from unknowingly contributing to the problem. Storm is an evolving problem for businesses, computer users and service providers around the world, who all need to act now in order to curb its spread."

The Storm spam volume peaks as computers in Asia, Europe and USA come online at 10 a.m. in their respective time zones.