The company intercepted between 8,000 and 13,000 spam attacks each day last week. Each spam attack represents the bulk mailing of a message with unique characteristics sent during a 24-hour period.
The latest figures represent an increase of 150% on last month’s statistics and an increase of 400% on last year’s.
"Spammers are becoming more aggressive and sophisticated in their attempts to deliver a myriad of products, ‘get rich’, weight loss, political, and other dubious propositions to the fast growing number of e-mail boxes," said Gary Hermansen, CEO of Brightmail. "In addition, spam seriously affects the service providers by increasing the costs associated with delivering a satisfying e-mail experience to their customers.”