Derrick
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IT security and control firm Sophos has published its latest report on the top twelve spam-relaying countries over the final quarter of 2007.
Experts at SophosLabs scanned all spam messages received in the company’s global network of spam traps, and have revealed a dramatic rise in the proportion of the world’s spam messages being sent from compromised Russian computers.
The country has stormed into second place, accounting for 8.3% of the world’s spam, or one in twelve junk mails seen in inboxes. Russia’s rise is echoed in Sophos’s research into which continents make the greatest contribution to the spam problem – with Asia and Europe overtaking North America.
Between October-December 2007, the USA relayed far more spam than any other country – testament to the sheer number of computers in the country that have been taken over by remote hackers. Representing thelion’s share of total spam traffic, the United States’ 21 percent slice means that more than one in five of all the world’s spam emails was being sent through compromised American computers.
The top twelve spam-relaying countries are as follows:
October to December 2007
1. United States – 21.3%
2. Russia – 8.3%
3. China (inc. Hong Kong) – 4.2%
4. Brazil – 4.0%
5. South Korea – 3.9%
6. Turkey – 3.8%
7. Italy – 3.5%
8. Poland – 3.4%
9. Germany – 3.2%
10= Spain – 3.1%
10= Mexico – 3.1%
12. United Kingdom – 2.5%
Other – 35.7%
Responsible for a third of all unwanted email, USA and Russia can be viewed as the two dirty men of the spam generation, polluting email traffic with unwanted and potentially malicious messages.
“It’s not the case that a third of the world’s spammers are based in those countries, but that legions of computers are poorly defended, allowing hackers to break in and turn them into botnets for the spreading of spam and malware,” says Brett Myroff, CEO of master Sophos distributor, NetXactics.
Experts at SophosLabs scanned all spam messages received in the company’s global network of spam traps, and have revealed a dramatic rise in the proportion of the world’s spam messages being sent from compromised Russian computers.
The country has stormed into second place, accounting for 8.3% of the world’s spam, or one in twelve junk mails seen in inboxes. Russia’s rise is echoed in Sophos’s research into which continents make the greatest contribution to the spam problem – with Asia and Europe overtaking North America.
Between October-December 2007, the USA relayed far more spam than any other country – testament to the sheer number of computers in the country that have been taken over by remote hackers. Representing thelion’s share of total spam traffic, the United States’ 21 percent slice means that more than one in five of all the world’s spam emails was being sent through compromised American computers.
The top twelve spam-relaying countries are as follows:
October to December 2007
1. United States – 21.3%
2. Russia – 8.3%
3. China (inc. Hong Kong) – 4.2%
4. Brazil – 4.0%
5. South Korea – 3.9%
6. Turkey – 3.8%
7. Italy – 3.5%
8. Poland – 3.4%
9. Germany – 3.2%
10= Spain – 3.1%
10= Mexico – 3.1%
12. United Kingdom – 2.5%
Other – 35.7%
Responsible for a third of all unwanted email, USA and Russia can be viewed as the two dirty men of the spam generation, polluting email traffic with unwanted and potentially malicious messages.
“It’s not the case that a third of the world’s spammers are based in those countries, but that legions of computers are poorly defended, allowing hackers to break in and turn them into botnets for the spreading of spam and malware,” says Brett Myroff, CEO of master Sophos distributor, NetXactics.