Internet security vendor Commtouch released an update on the latest spam figures, and as it turns out, spammers everywhere are back from their holiday vacation too. After one of the quietest spam periods record by Commtouch (Dec. 25 to Jan. 9), a sudden spike of activity is reported by the company, which exceeds the spam quantity sent out just before the lull.

“After one of the quietest spam periods in Commtouch recorded history, spammers are clearly back at work.  The quiet period neatly matches the Christmas-New Year holiday season but also seems to add the Russian New Year and Russian Orthodox Christmas (Friday 7^th of January).  Outbreaks resumed on the 9^th.”

The renewed spam campaigns are reportedly emanating from by the Rustock botnet – all the e-mails redirect via Russian and Polish domains to “Pharmacy Express”, which is presumed to be “Canadian Pharmacy” which was associated with the Spamit organization.

The quiet period was good while it lasted, and we covered Commtouch’s previous spam report of the period which indicated a 30% drop in spam in December 2010. Users however have more security threats to worry about than just increased spam quantities. Cloud-based mobile security vendor Lookout Mobile Security released its list of mobile security tips, and McAfee released its own list of mobile threat predictions for 2011. This list is divided into 8 areas, including Exploiting Social Media, Mobile, Apple, Applications, Sophistication Mimics Legitimacy, Botnet Survival, Hacktivism and Advanced Persistent Threats.