Security company McAfee says second quarter spam exploded by 80 percent over the first quarter this year, reaching the highest levels ever.

McAfee’s Q2 Threats report says the company saw the highest amount of spam it ever recorded in June alone.

It exceeded the previous high in October by 20 percent.

The report says zombies and botnets are hijacking ever more computers to send spam and malware. The company says it recorded 14 million new zombies, up by 150,000 a day, a record.

McAfee blames the increase on the number of unprotected home computers.

The number one threat in the quarter was AutoRun malware, which is automatically triggered when users plug in a USB, memory card or other external device. McAfee says it found AutoRun malware on 27 million files in one 30 day period during the quarter.

Online: www.mcafee.com/us/threat_center/default.asp

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