US continues to lead the pack, as spammers exploit unprotected
PCs
Sophos, a world leader in protecting businesses against spam and
viruses, has today published research on the top twelve spam
producing countries.
Sophos experts examined all spam messages received at the
company's global network of spam traps from January 2005 - March
2005. Based on the analysis, experts found that the United States
topped the "Dirty Dozen" chart once again, exporting an average of
35.70% of all spam during this timeframe.
The top spam producing countries are as follows:
| Position | Country | Percentage of global spam |
|---|
| 1 | United States | |
| 2 | South Korea | |
| 3 | China (incl Hong Kong) | |
| 4 | France | |
| 5 | Spain | |
| 6 | Canada | |
| 7 | Japan | |
| 8 | Brazil | |
| 9 | United Kingdom | |
| 10 | Germany | |
| 11 | Australia | |
| 12 | Poland | |
| Others | 11.73% |
"Although the USA is responsible for producing more than a third
of all of the world's spam, its percentage contribution has
decreased," said Graham Cluley, senior
technology consultant for Sophos. "The percentage of spam sent from
American computers has fallen 12% since the start of the year
compared to other countries. ISPs enforcing policies to ensure they
do not knowingly provide network services to spammers, and a rising
awareness of the need to protect all computers from being hacked by
spammers has undoubtedly contributed to this trend."
"Last month, Sophos reported that more than 50% of the world's
spam came from zombie computers, which are PCs that have been
compromised by hackers or virus writers," continued Cluley.
"Businesses and computer users must protect themselves from
becoming a zombie by having up-to-date anti-virus software,
firewalls and Microsoft security patches."
Sophos recommends that businesses adopt a multi-layered defence
in conjunction with implementing a best practice policy regarding
email account usage. Users can also learn how to best minimise the
influx of unwanted email by following a few simple guidelines.
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.