[January 16, 2014]

AppRiver Releases 2013 Year-End Global Security Report

AppRiver, LLC, a leading provider of email messaging and Web security solutions, today released its year-end Global Security Report, a detailed summary and analysis of spam and malware trends traced over the course of 2013.

During the past year alone, AppRiver quarantined 28.8 billion spam messages in its filters, a 128-percent increase over the amount seen the previous year. While spam is irritating, it is messages containing malicious attachments that can prove exceptionally damaging and AppRiver's statistics confirm this is still a popular infection vector - having quarantined just over 479 million such malware messages. In tandem, it has also seen a significant upward trend of malware delivered via malicious links.

In the report, co-author Fred Touchette, senior security analyst at AppRiver discusses Target's (News - Alert) woes. Touchette says, "Everyone is still reeling from the very recent Target breach where cybercriminals made off with approximately 100 million credit and debit card accounts during the United States' busiest shopping time of the year. Criminals were able to place malware directly on the point-of-sale (POS) systems of each of Target's 1,800 stores. They syphoned off account information and sent the data to servers in Eastern Europe. Those account credentials were immediately turned around and sold to buyers in the U.S. for up to $100 each. This wa a big hit on Target and a bigger hit on U.S. consumers. In fact, it was the biggest since Albert Gonzalez masterminded the major TJX breach back in 2007."

Among the dozens of issues witnessed by the security community over the past year, report co-author Troy Gill, senior security analyst at AppRiver notes, "2013 was a busy year for agencies fighting cybercrime. Government and private institutions have started working closely together to fight online threats and crack down on illegal operations. We also saw some of the tools that online criminals use to do their jobs come and go last year. The Blackhole toolkit and thousands of infected botnet hosts were taken down, along with the cybercriminals that ran them."

AppRiver's Global Security Report, which is available online here, devotes a special section to the mobile security landscape with an examination of a unique mobile malware campaign that hit in late October and poses a threat to PC users, Android (News - Alert) users and some IOS users alike. The messages pose as notifications from WhatsApp (a Messenger available for Android and other smartphones).

Also in the Global Security Report, AppRiver shares metrics as seen by its SecureTide™ and SecureSurf™ filters from its nodes throughout the world. Of note, The U.S. was once again identified as the highest 'spam pusher' with 4,871,761,291 messages. Making its debut in the top ten, and going straight to second place, was Belarus with 2,035,771,417, pushing India into third position with 1,560,528,465. When looking at levels for both spam and malicious email traffic, it is Europe that claims the top spot - responsible for 38 percent of traffic, with Asia in second with 24.7 percent, closely followed by North America with 21 percent. AppRiver monitored a daily average of 4.3 million Web-based malware threats during 2013.

The full 2013 Year in Review report is available online (http://www.appriver.com/resources/global_security_report/global_security_report_EOY2013.aspx).

About AppRiver

AppRiver is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS (News - Alert)) provider offering award-winning email and Web security solutions to businesses of all sizes. Understanding the need to protect networks from today's increasingly complex IT threats, AppRiver offers businesses a comprehensive, yet affordable subscription-based solution that incorporates the latest spam and virus protection, email encryption and Web security on the market. In addition, the company provides a complete managed service for Microsoft (News - Alert) Exchange, as well as a bundled Office 365 solution. Since its inception, AppRiver has sustained an impressive 93% customer retention rate while growing its customer base to more than 45,000 companies and over 8 million mailboxes worldwide. The company maintains offices in Florida, New York and Switzerland, and is led by an Ernst & Young Florida Entrepreneur of the Year award winner. For more information, please visit www.appriver.com.

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