US is the Biggest Spam Offender
A recent report released by IT security and data protection firm Sophos shows that the U.S. is the most flagrant offender on the worldwide spam stage.
The U.S. sits at the top of the company’s “Dirty Dozen” list of spam-relaying nations between April and June, responsible for 15.6 percent of the global spam traffic, or nearly one in six spam messages.
Brazil was second on the list, responsible for 11.1 percent of the world’s junk e-mail, followed by Turkey with 5.2 percent, India with 5.0 percent and South Korea with 4.7 percent.
Poland was sixth on the list, responsible for 4.2 percent of the world’s spam messages, is the country that has seen the biggest increase in spam relaying output since the previous quarter, rising from the tenth spot on the list.
China (including Hong Kong) was responsible for 4.1 percent of the world’s spam, followed by Spain with 3.4 percent and Russia with 3.2 percent. Russia has seen the biggest drop in its spam relaying output. During the same quarter last year, Russia was responsible for 7.5 percent of the world’s spam e-mails, second only to the U.S.
Italy was tenth with 2.8 percent, followed by Argentina with 2.5 percent and Vietnam with 2.3 percent. Vietnam replaced Colombia, which is now off of the list.
Other countries were responsible for 35.9 percent of the world’s spam.
“Barack Obama’s recent speech on cybersecurity emphasised the threat posed by overseas criminals and enemy states, but these figures prove that there is a significant problem in his own back yard,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. “If America could clean up its compromised PCs it would be a considerable benefit to everyone around the world who uses the net.”
He added, “All web users need to properly defend their computers from attack, and pledge to never act upon spam messages.”
The report also highlighted the increasing use of URL shortening services as channels for spam.
“This is being exploited by hackers that will use the services to obscure links to offensive material or malicious websites, and then distribute the links in spam emails, as well as posting them on Twitter and other networks,” noted a company statement.
Cluley said, “Although it may seem encouraging to see reductions in the volume of spam that certain countries are contributing, authorities, ISPs and home users across the world need to be doing more to crack down on the spam problem.”
Asia was the biggest spam-relaying continent, responsible for 31.7 percent of the world’s spam, followed by Europe with 27.1 percent, South America with 19.4 percent, North America with 18.8 percent, Africa with 2.0 percent, Oceania with 0.6 percent and Other with 0.4 percent.
Sources:</strong
http://www.sophos.com/pressoffice/news/articles/2009/07/dirtydozenq209.html
