Between 70 and 80 per cent of all internet traffic running across Russian networks last year was spam, according to a report by a security firm.

Kaspersky Lab's 2006 report found that spammers continued to use graphics to evade spam filters, and to send messages masquerading as personal correspondence in order to get the recipient to read the whole message and act on its contents. 

The report found that spam became increasingly criminalised in 2006, as spammers actively used SMS to spread their messages.

Kaspersky's researchers reported that mass mailings differed according to the language used.

Most Russian language spam offered education, training and a wide range of goods, while English language spam focused on advertising for stocks and shares, Viagra and cheap software.

Kaspersky also recorded a 41 per cent rise in the number of malicious programs over 2005's figures.

"As for the future evolution of malicious programs, Kaspersky Lab analysts believe that virus writers and spammers will work ever more closely together," the report said.

"The number of Trojans will continue to increase, and virus writers will be on the lookout for exploitable vulnerabilities in Vista."