USA Continues as Highest Spam Relaying Country

Sophos the IT Control and Security Company recently released its security report for the 12 most spam inflicted countries covering January-March 2011 or Q1-2011. Significantly, even while being the highest spam generating country in the total world junk e-mail, USA witnessed a considerable fall in its share of global spam at 13.7% from 18.83%.

There was also a fall in spam generation in UK, with its total contribution in the e-mail junk dropping 3.2% from 4.54% in the world aggregate, making the country slide from No.5 to No.6 on Sophos' "dirty dozen" list.

Moreover, alongside the United States and the United Kingdom, the remaining countries making to the Top Twelve in spam generation during Q1-2011 include India at 7.1%, Russia at 6.6%, Brazil at 6.4%, South Korea at 3.8%, France and Italy at 3.1% each, Spain at 2.8%, Germany at 2.6%, Romania at 2.5% and Poland at 2.3%. All other countries credited with spam, bear approximately 42% of worldwide junk e-mail.

Thus Sophos suggests that organizations require making their virus defenses up-to-date automatically as well as executing a comprehensive security mechanism at their web gateways and e-mail for protecting themselves from viruses and spam. Also, individual PC users are suggested for protecting their systems with anti-virus software so their systems don't get included into a botnet typically distributing spam messages.

Furthermore, Sophos has cautioned about the constant increase in social networks' and mobile platforms' popularity which imply that mediums of spam assault are increasing in number while it's still important towards prioritizing computer safety.

Says Senior Technology Consultant Graham Cluley at Sophos, albeit the share of UK and USA in total spam has fallen percentage-wise, despite so organizations shouldn't feel complacent. Timesofindia.indiatimes.com reported this on May 11, 2011.

Finally according to Sophos, Asia is the top continent distributing junk e-mails, contributing a 35.1% share in global spam, with Europe following in close margin at 32%, being down from the highest rank on the 'dirty dozen' list. Subsequently, on No.3 is North America at merely 17.3%, while South America relays spam at the rate of 12.4% and other countries at 0.9%.

Related article: US Passes Baton to Asia in Spam Relay

» SPAMfighter News - 5/19/2011