Top 10 Most Spammed and Top 10 Least Spammed States in the US of A

Article by George Norman (Cybersecurity Editor)

on 29 Sep 2009

MessageLabs, the provider of integrated messaging and web security services that is part of security software developer Symantec, has recently released an intelligence report which presents the top 10 most spammed states in the US of A for the month of September. The report also presents the least top 10 spammed US states.

Without any further ado, here are the most spammed US states (for the month of September, 2009)


1. Idaho
– 93.8% spam
2. Kentucky – 93.0% spam
3. New Jersey – 92.8% spam
4. Alabama – 91.9% spam
5. Illinois – 91.6% spam
6. Indiana – 91.0% spam
7. Massachusetts – 90.9% spam
8. Pennsylvania – 90.5% spam
9. Arizona – 90.4% spam
10. Maryland, North Carolina and New Mexico (a tie between the three) – 90.3% spam

Spam levels in the states presented above are of 90.3% or more. 93.8% of all email traffic detected in Idaho was spam. Just to put things in perspective, the global spam rate for September was of 86.4. In 2008, Idaho ranked at number 44 in the most spammed lists chart. Speaking of 2008, last year Idaho, Kentucky and New Jersey were in the least spammed US states top 10 list.

And now the top 10 least spammed states in the US of A:

1. Puerto Rico – 83.1% spam. Puerto Rico is the least spammed state in the US, retaining its position since 2008.
2. Montana
3. Alaska
4. Kansas
5. South Dakota
6. Tennessee
7. Vermont
8. West Virginia and Rhode Island (a tie between the two)
9. Wisconsin
10. Iowa and Florida (a tie between the two).

Paul Wood, MessageLabs Intelligence Senior Analyst, Symantec, sheds his insight into what was behind these high levels of spam: “Some of the high spam levels seen across the US can be attributed to the economic challenges experienced globally since the end of 2008 as well as Internet advancement including the high adoption of social networking. Spammers have taken full advantage of both the economic uncertainty of some and the trustworthiness of others for their own rewards. Automated tools, resilient botnets and targeted spam campaigns are all part of the spammers’ toolkit and they are constantly evolving these techniques to outsmart any effort to stop them. No state is immune to the affects of spam.”

If you would like to look at the original MessageLabs Intelligence report yourself, you can download it here (PDF warning).


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