Percentage of Spam Originating in U.S. Doubles, With Election-Related Spam Messages Topping 100 Million Daily; Obama Continues to Trounce McCain in the Spam Polls With an 80% Share

SAN JOSE, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 10/27/08 -- Secure Computing Corporation (NASDAQ: SCUR), a leading enterprise gateway security company, today published the Q3, 2008 Internet Threats Report containing data and analysis covering both email and Web-based threats. The report was compiled by the Secure Computing research teams and based on the company's TrustedSource Global Reputation System with its unique and unparalleled view of worldwide Internet traffic. Among the report's findings, Q3 saw the emergence of new malware targeting users of the popular social networking sites MySpace and Facebook as well as panic-inducing "bank failure spam" intending to capitalize on the current financial crisis. "Scareware" programs also spread rapidly, while election-related spam soared, with Senator Obama easily defeating his opponent in terms of spam popularity. More detailed information follows, and the entire report can be accessed at http://www.securecomputing.com/pdf/SCC-InternetThrtRprt-Oct08.pdf

Q3 Spam Trends Statistics & Analysis

Spam volume returned to record highs in Q3 with fairly steady monthly increases throughout the summer. The acquisition of innocent machines via email and Web-based infections continued in Q3, with over 5,000 new zombies created every hour. The United States continued its role as the largest originator of spam messages, nearly doubling its worldwide share from 16.6% in Q2, 2008 to 32.1% in Q3. The Q3 report further discusses the following topics in detail:

--  Q3 saw the emergence of "Breaking News" spam as a new vehicle that
    enticed readers to click for breaking news flashes with interesting and
    provocative headlines.
--  Misguided "Delivery Status Notifications" made a strong resurgence
    onto the "Most Common Spam" list.
--  Spammers continue to leverage election topics to lure users. After the
    second presidential debate on October 7th, Obama gained popularity among
    spammers, and over 80% of election-related spam currently bears his name.
--  Secure Computing's TrustedSource Labs estimates the number of
    worldwide U.S. election-related spam email to be approximately 100 million
    messages per day.
    

Malware Statistics and Analysis

--  The United States and China dominate the world in the number of hosted
    Websites which distribute malware, with nearly 60% of all malware-infected
    URLs served from these two countries. In terms of phishing attacks, the
    United States and the Netherlands host nearly 60% of all URLs used.
--  Phishing attacks spiked significantly following the announcements of
    various bank failures in late September.