Sophos, a world leader in protecting businesses against spam and
viruses, has published its latest report into the countries from
which most spam messages originate.
Researchers at Sophos scanned all spam messages received at its
global network of honeypots throughout 2004 and at the top of the
list was the United States, which is responsible for exporting
42.11% of all spam.
The top twelve spam producing countries are as follows:
- United States
- South Korea
- China (incl Hong Kong)
- Canada
- Brazil
- Japan
- France
- Spain
- United Kingdom
- Germany
- Taiwan
- Mexico
|
42.11%
13.43%
8.44%
5.71%
3.34%
2.57%
1.37%
1.18%
1.13%
1.03%
1.00%
0.89%
|
| Others |
17.8% |
"When we first reported on the top spamming countries back in
February 2004, the USA had the excuse that the CAN-SPAM act had
been in existence for a couple of months," said Graham Cluley, senior
technology consultant for Sophos. "Almost a year and millions of
spam messages later, it is quite evident that that the CAN-SPAM
legislation has made very little headway in damming the flood of
spam."
Sophos notes that the most broadband-connected country in the
world, South Korea, has held tightly onto its position as a leading
producer of spam.
"Spammers are motivated by one thing - fast and easy money,"
continued Cluley. "Many spammers have taken their money-making
schemes to the extreme by hacking into innocent third-party
computers in an effort to do their dirty work. Many home users'
computers are sending out spam because they have had their
broadband internet connections exploited by remote hackers. Zombie
computers - PCs that have been compromised by hackers or virus
writers - are sending out over 40% of the world's spam, usually to
the complete ignorance of the PC's owner."
Sophos recommends that users should avoid purchasing anything
that is advertised via spam, and to deploy a consolidated solution at the email gateway, which
can protect against both spam and viruses.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.