The amount of spam encountered in January dropped to just 78.6 percent of all sent email, the lowest amount since March 2009, reports security vendor Symantec. The decrease in spam volume was reported in the January 2011 edition of the MessageLabs Intelligence report, and was mostly attributed to a halt in the activities of a trio of the most prolific spam-sending botnets. Overall, global spam volume has also dropped in 2010 as compared to previous years.

Speaking to eWeek, Henry Stern, Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) senior security researcher, confirmed that "It was the first year ever in the history of spam that global volumes declined." On the downside, spammers continue to find new ways to scam for profit and steal information, observed John N. Stewart, vice president and chief security officer at Cisco.

I took a quick look at the report, and it would appear that pharmaceutical remains the predominant type of spam, accounting for a staggering 59.1 percent of spam received in January. For those who are interested, Symantec's January 2011 MessageLabs Intelligence report can be downloaded here (.pdf).

For more on this story:
- check out this article at eSecurity Planet
- check out this article at eWeek

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