Postini also noted in July a continuing rise in encrypted email traffic, as organizations around the world increasingly use encryption to protect sensitive communications with their business partners, contractors, regulators and remote employees. More than 325 million encrypted messages were processed in July, representing eight percent of all valid email messages and a 13 percent increase in encrypted traffic over the prior month.
The ability to encrypt email, based on an industry standard called Transport Layer Security (TLS), is built into every modern email server and is easy and free to use. Postini research shows that while the use of TLS to encrypt email messages continues to increase month over month, today nearly 90 percent of businesses worldwide have simply failed to turn on the TLS functionality available to them for free on their email servers.
In July, Postini processed more than 26 billion SMTP email connections with 62 percent blocked as Directory Harvest Attacks (DHAs) and other messages sent to non-existent recipients. Six billion messages were blocked as spam, an average of 77 percent of all email scanned. Utilizing its patented PREEMPT heuristic technology, Postini blocked more than 26 million viruses in July.
The top five viruses for July were Bagle, Netsky, Mytob, Mime and Mydoom. Additional virus information
