IT security and control firm Sophos has published its latest
report into the top twelve spam relaying countries, covering the
first quarter of 2009. The United States of America continues its
reign as the king of spam, relaying more than 15 percent of global
spam messages. Conversely, the United Kingdom has disappeared from
the 'Dirty Dozen' for the first time in two years, polling 14th
overall, and relaying 2.1 percent of the world's spam.
Brazil has seen the biggest increase in spam output, jumping
from fourth to second place since last quarter. The country is now
the source of more than ten percent of spam emails, compared to 4.3
percent during the same period last year. Germany joins the UK in
dropping out of the top twelve since last quarter, with Poland and
Columbia returning to the table for the first time since Q2 and Q3
2008 respectively.
The top twelve spam relaying countries for January to March 2009
are as follows:
"The US has gone some way towards reducing levels of spam since
last quarter, when the country relayed almost a fifth of all the
spam messages," said Graham
Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. "What's less
encouraging is that Brazil has shot up the ranks. It's no secret
that the country has long been associated with cybercrime - in
particular the spread of banking Trojans - however, a surge like
this could also be a by-product of China's slip down the charts. In
any case, it's certainly a trend to keep a close eye on."
The blight of inboxes, spam accounts for a staggering 97 percent
of all email received by business email servers, putting both a
strain on resources and wasting a huge amount of time to lost
productivity. Used largely as a method for selling counterfeit or
illicit goods, virtually all spam comes from malware infected
computers (called bots, or zombies) that are controlled by
'botherder' cybercriminals.
Computer users can unwittingly allow their PCs to become part of
a botnet in a number of ways, including clicking on malicious links
that are frequently contained within the spam messages that the
botnets are used to distribute. The only way for users and
administrators to reduce the risk of being compromised is to run
anti-spam and anti-malware protection and ensure all software and
hardware is up to date with security patches.
"Of course, the real cause of the spam problem is that not
everyone will automatically delete these emails on sight,"
continued Cluley. "People out there must be buying products from
spam, after all - the criminals behind the botnets would soon give
up if they weren't making any money out of it. Computer users
should know by now that buying from spam is contributing to the
problem, as well as putting their personal information into the
hands of criminals - everyone should pledge to never ever buy via
spam."
By continent, Asia continues to dominate in spam, with more than
a third of the world's unsolicited junk email relayed by the
region. Although the US remains the top offender by country, North
America as a whole has reduced its spam throughput since last
quarter, dropping from second to third place. The breakdown of spam
relaying by continent is as follows:
Sophos recommends that companies automatically update their
corporate virus protection, and run a consolidated solution at their email and web
gateways to defend against spam and viruses.
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.