Stateside spam slaying stalls

US efforts to stop the nation serving as the world's top spam relaying nation are stalling.

For the first time in more than two years, the US has failed to rein in the hordes of botnet computers that made it the source of 23.2 per cent of the world's spam in Q2 2006.

Its closest rivals are China and South Korea, although both of these countries managed to reduce the amount of spam they were responsible for between the first and second quarters of 2006, according to an analysis of the top 12 spam relaying countries by UK-based net security firm Sophos.

Sophos says the prosecution of spammers under the US's CAN-SPAM Act needs to be accompanied by improved home security if hopes of reducing spam are to be realised.
During Q2 2006, Europe overtook North America as a spreader of spam, with an increase of 2.1 percentage points over the quarter leaving it responsible for 27.1 per cent of global spam in Q2 2006.

» The Register - John Leyden - 31-07-2006