Spammers are increasingly using malware with a new report indicating 12 per cent of Australian spam contained malicious software in the past month.
Symantec's monthly state of spam and phishing report indicates a rise in local attacks with Australian spammers making up 3 per cent of all phishing scams worldwide.
Out of the top 10 subject lines used by spammers globally, eight related to the World Cup with "FIFA World Cup South Africa...bad news" ranking at number one.
Spammers used the sporting event nine times more in emails compared to the amount of spam that came out of the 2006 event.
The report is based on spam data that passes through the Symantec Probe Network; a system of more than 2.5 million decoy accounts.
The results may come as no surprise to chief security officers. Last month, WatchGuard predicted an increase in malware would take place during the World Cup.