Symantec Survey Finds 83.2 Percent of Internet Users in Japan Receiving Spam

Japan's First Spam Survey by an Internet Security Company Also Reveals that 71.6 Percent Consider Dealing with Spam a Waste of Their Time

TOKYO -- 13 February, 2004 -- Symantec, the world leader in Internet security, today announced the results of a spam survey of Internet users in Japan, the first such survey undertaken by an Internet security company.

The rapid growth of the Internet has produced unprecedented convenience in the form of new services such as email and e-commerce, but with them a new annoyance is also on the rise: unsolicited or unwanted email commonly known as spam. The survey, carried out for Symantec by INFO PLANT Co., Ltd., revealed just how much of an irritation spam is becoming for Internet users: Over half of respondents reported being offended by the amount of time wasted and the trouble involved in identifying and deleting spam, by the tediousness of receiving the same message repeatedly, and by the worry that the spam might be harmful and, for example, infect their PC with a virus.

"Despite the fact that over 70 percent of email users in Japan find spam an annoying waste of time or offensive, relatively few take the proactive steps to prevent it," said Symantec Japan president Takahiro Sugiyama. "This is a surprising finding considering that the proliferation of spam has wide-ranging negative effects on computer users -- from cutting into business productivity to threatening the welfare of our children. We are pleased to be able to provide a solution for Internet users with our award-winning product, Norton AntiSpam, which easily and effectively filters unwanted email out of inboxes."

Some 1,200 respondents were sampled in early January from a preliminary survey of 4,002 Internet users nationwide undertaken at the end of 2003. Respondents were asked their views on specific questions such as spam's impact on their lives, whether spam is on the increase or decrease, the subject matter of spam, and how they deal with it.

The preliminary survey found that an astounding 83.2 percent of Internet users have received spam in some form or another. The percentage of users receiving spam was highest among men in their twenties (92.9 percent), followed by men in their forties (91.1 percent). While the rate was lower for women aged over 50, it was a still significant 75.9 percent, indicating that spam is being sent indiscriminately regardless of user age group or gender.

The amount of spam messages being received shows the severity of the problem. Of the respondents, 44.5 percent said they got at least one spam mail per day. A little over 15 percent (15.3 percent) reported receiving 10 or more spam messages, with 5.3 percent getting 10-14, 3.0 percent getting 15-19, and 7 percent getting 20 or more a day.

Key Findings of the Main Survey
When asked what they disliked most about spam the most common answer was, "Waste of time reading and deleting spam" (71.6 percent), while many other users were also annoyed about receiving "the same spam mail multiple times" (56.1 percent) or were "worried about contracting a virus" (55.4 percent). Close to 40 percent of respondents were concerned about "rip-off merchants verging on fraud" (38.6 percent) and "pornography and other obscene content" (38.1 percent).

Respondents also indicated that the amount of spam they get has increased over the past year. Over half reported seeing an increase, with 11.8 percent qualifying it as "significant" and 39.1 percent, as "gradual." Fewer than 20 percent reported a decrease in spam, with 8.8 percent saying they sensed a "gradual decrease" and 6.5 percent, a "significant decrease."

The content of spam was predominantly from "advertising from online dating sites"(59.1 percent), followed by "unintelligible mail in English or another foreign language" (50.6 percent), "advertising from pornographic and other obscene websites (45.8 percent), "advertising for SOHO and 'work-at-home' businesses schemes" (41.8 percent), and "advertising for pornographic video and DVD sales" (40.8 percent). The survey found that spam promoting online dating sites, pornographic and obscene websites, and pornographic videos and DVDs is being sent indiscriminately to women, minors, students, and children, signaling that this type of spam is a cause for concern given its negative social impact .

The survey further revealed that few people were taking the initiative to prevent spam despite the growing severity of the problem, with 29.0 percent of users taking no steps to block spam and 52.0 percent adopting a passive attitude of "reading the subject line and deleting it manually." Only 20.8 percent used their email program's filtering features, 14.3 percent used the filtering services offered by their ISPs, and a mere 6.3 percent had an email filtering software in place. There was little difference among gender and age groups, although more experienced Internet users were likely to use their email program's filtering features.

To address consumers' concerns about this growing problem, Symantec offers Norton AntiSpam 2004, a powerful, yet easy-to-use solution. Norton AntiSpam 2004 works by automatically intercepting and analyzing email in standard POP3 connections and marks spam as it comes into the user's in-box. It integrates tightly with the latest versions of Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Outlook Express and Eudora by automatically creating a spam folder and using it to collect all email identified as spam. The intelligent filtering engine of Norton AntiSpam 2004 has the ability to learn how to distinguish between spam and harmless email with a high degree of accuracy by analyzing the user's outgoing messages.

"As a leader in Internet security, we would like to take a leading role in raising the public's awareness of the dangers of spam and show how to prevent it before the situation gets worse," Sugiyama added.

About INFO PLANT CO., LTD.
INFO PLANT, the leading Internet research company in Japan, provides consumers with a voice by utilizing more than 149,000 panel members through three core services, DTR (Desk Top Research), mp@ck, and C-NEWS in a timely manner. Since its service launch in July 1998, the company has conducted more than 35,500 surveys, the largest number undertaken by a single company in Japan, resulting in a high reputation for the quality of data and speed of service. Currently INFO PLANT has more than 1,200 clients throughout various industries, such as advertising agencies, research companies, enterprises, and the media. In 2003 the company had sales of over JPY1.1 billion. For more information, please visit http://www.info-plant.com.

About Symantec
Symantec, the world leader in Internet security technology, provides a broad range of content and network security software and appliance solutions to individuals, enterprises and service providers. The company is a leading provider of client, gateway and server security solutions for virus protection, firewall and virtual private network, vulnerability management, intrusion detection, Internet content and e-mail filtering, remote management technologies and security services to enterprises and service providers around the world. Symantec's Norton brand of consumer security products is a leader in worldwide retail sales and industry awards. Headquartered in Cupertino, Calif., Symantec has worldwide operations in 38 countries. For more information, please visit www.symantec.com.

NOTE TO EDITORS: If you would like additional information on Symantec Corporation and its products, please view the Symantec Press Center at http://www.symantec.com/PressCenter/ on Symantec's Web site. All prices noted are in US dollars and are valid only in the United States.

Symantec and the Symantec logo are trademarks or registered trademarks, in the United States and certain other countries, of Symantec Corporation. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of the individual companies and are respectfully acknowledged.