US Emerged as a Top Distributor of Viruses and Spam in July 2008

As per the threat statistics examined by managed security company, Network Box, the US has retained its top position as the major source of spam and viruses. The US has held this title throughout 2008 and according to July 2008 figures, it seems that this trend will continue.

Earlier, spam levels in the US during June 2008 touched 86% as compared to spam levels at 81.5% in the rest of the world. Several socio-economic aspects seem to affect the spam rates in some states in the country.

Also, in July 2008, the US was responsible for one out of four viruses (25.2%), surpassing its nearest competitor, Australia, by more than four to one (5.8%). Almost one in ten (11.6%) spam mails is originated from the US, followed by Turkey in 2nd position (8.4%).

Considering the number of junk mails being sent, it seems that hackers are abandoning the traditional way of spam including a URL to their wares and going for more developed methods like file attachments and image based spam. Fortunately, the number of phishing attacks came down from 69% in June 2008 to 57% in July 2008.

Further, Mytob remains on the top ten, holding the 9th position, while Agent.sqt topped the Trojan chart. Korea emerged as the leader of intrusions. It was responsible for more than a quarter of intrusions (26.5%) during July 2008, indicating a marginal decrease of 0.3% from May 2008 figure.

Internet Security Analyst at Network Box, Simon Heron claimed that in 2004, almost 50%-60% of spam originated from the US. Now, the security researchers are saying that it is overtaken by Russia, China and Europe, as reported by Net-Security on July 31, 2008.

The US is still home of a large number of consumer systems that are hacked and part of botnets. But with increasing penetration of broadband in Russia, China and Europe, it seems that these countries will soon join the US or might surpass it. Also, less experienced consumer markets are not much aware of computer protection and, thus, are more vulnerable to infection.

Related article: US Passes Baton to Asia in Spam Relay

» SPAMfighter News - 8/7/2008