Sophos Once Again Reveals the Top 12 Spam Relaying Countries
Sophos, company that specializes in providing antivirus, anti-spam, spyware removal software, network and internet security, data protection, and computer security solutions, has made public the list of countries that generated the most amounts of spam from July until September 2010. Unsurprisingly, the US, India and Brazil still lead the chart.
“IT security and control firm Sophos has published the latest report into the 'Dirty Dozen' spam-relaying countries, covering the third quarter of 2010. Since the second quarter this year, the spam output from the United States has increased significantly from 15.2% to 18.6% of global spam, making the country responsible for nearly one in five junk emails, and meaning that the USA contributes nearly 2.5 times more spam than the next worse offender, India,” explained Sophos.
Here’s Sophos’ top 12 spam relaying countries for July to September 2010:
The remaining 38.5% of global spam is attributed to other countries.
To better put things in perspective, here’s how Sophos’ top 12 spam relaying countries for April to June 2010 looked like:
And here’s how Sophos’ top 12 spam relaying countries for January to March 2010 looked like:
See now why I said at the start of the article that “Unsurprisingly, the US, India and Brazil still lead the chart”? It’s because all year long they have topped Sophos’ “Dirty Dozen” chart.
“It's still a surprise to many people who don't work in the field of computer security, but the vast majority of the spam you receive in your inbox is not sent from the spammers' own computers but relayed through infected PCs belonging to regular members of the public. In other words, Aunty Hilda could be the one pumping out all that Viagra spam. And where are most of the world's Aunty Hildas? The United States,” commented Senior Technology Consultant with Sophos, Graham Cluley.
“IT security and control firm Sophos has published the latest report into the 'Dirty Dozen' spam-relaying countries, covering the third quarter of 2010. Since the second quarter this year, the spam output from the United States has increased significantly from 15.2% to 18.6% of global spam, making the country responsible for nearly one in five junk emails, and meaning that the USA contributes nearly 2.5 times more spam than the next worse offender, India,” explained Sophos.
Here’s Sophos’ top 12 spam relaying countries for July to September 2010:
- 1. USA with 18.6% of global spam
- 2. India with 7.6% of global spam
- 3. Brazil with 5.7% of global spam
- 4. France with 5.4% of global spam
- 5. UK with 5.0% of global spam
- 6. Germany 3.4% of global spam
- 7 S Korea and Russia with 3.0% of global spam
- 9. Vietnam with 2.9% of global spam
- 10. Italy with 2.8% of global spam
- 11. Romania with 2.3% of global spam
- 12. Spain with 1.8% of global spam
The remaining 38.5% of global spam is attributed to other countries.
To better put things in perspective, here’s how Sophos’ top 12 spam relaying countries for April to June 2010 looked like:
- 1. USA with 15.2% of global spam
- 2. India with 7.7% of global spam
- 3. Brazil with 5.5% of global spam
- 4. UK with 4.6% of global spam
- 5. South Korea with 4.2% of global spam
- 6. France with 4.1% of global spam
- 7. Germany with 4.0% of global spam
- 8. Italy with 3.5% of global spam
- 9. Russia with 4.0% of global spam
- 10. Vietnam with 2.7% of global spam
- 11. Poland with 2.5% of global spam
- 12. Romania with 2.3% of global spam
And here’s how Sophos’ top 12 spam relaying countries for January to March 2010 looked like:
- 1. USA with 13.1% of global spam
- 2. India with 7.3% of global spam
- 3. Brazil with 6.8% of global spam
- 4. South Korea with 4.8% of global spam
- 5. Vietnam with 3.4% of global spam
- 6. Germany with 3.2% of global spam
- 9. United Kingdom, Russia, Italy all tie at 3.1% of global spam
- 10. France with 3.0% of global spam
- 11. Romania with 2.5% of global spam
- 12. Poland with 2.4% of global spam
See now why I said at the start of the article that “Unsurprisingly, the US, India and Brazil still lead the chart”? It’s because all year long they have topped Sophos’ “Dirty Dozen” chart.
“It's still a surprise to many people who don't work in the field of computer security, but the vast majority of the spam you receive in your inbox is not sent from the spammers' own computers but relayed through infected PCs belonging to regular members of the public. In other words, Aunty Hilda could be the one pumping out all that Viagra spam. And where are most of the world's Aunty Hildas? The United States,” commented Senior Technology Consultant with Sophos, Graham Cluley.
