And says the monthly report – which has just been released by the veteran IT security vendor – an attack at 2pm on Christmas Eve resulted in a quarter of the world's spam containing hijacked IPs. According to the report, this form of spam, also known as 'dotted quad' spam, more than tripled in the last month of 2009, compared with the volume in November 2009.

Delving into the analysis reveals there was also an increase in targeted brand attacks – brands that phishing sites spoofed – which increased by 2% from the previous month.

Globally, Symantec says that the UK was ranked as a top three country for brand attacks, just behind the US, due to the high proportion of Britain-based banking companies targeted by spammers.

Other key findings from the report show that the UK is rising as a host country for phishing attacks.

The UK is now ranked as the fourth most prolific country for hosting phishing sites, up from sixth in November. It also accounted for approximately 7% of IP attacks in the month.