Russia & USA Crowned 'Spam Superpower' by SophosLabs Survey

SophosLabs, a security firm, revealed that Russia has emerged as a superpower in generating spam e-mails while the US is leading the league. As per the quarterly update of SophosLabs, (October to December 2007), Russia generates around 8.3% of world's spam e-mails, or one out of 12 junk mails.

As per the data collected by SophosLabs, the spam e-mails generated by the USA was more than 21% of the total spam. It indicated that out of every five e-mails sent across the world, one mail was being sent via America's compromised computers. Whereas regional data predicts that Asia topped the list by accounting for 32% of spam. Europe scored after Asia with 27% of spam e-mails, and North America came third with 26.5%.

The survey also revealed top twelve spam generating countries which include the US, Italy, Germany, China (inc. Hong Kong), Russia, Mexico, Spain, Turkey, the UK, South Korea, Brazil, and Poland.

Carole Theriault, Senior Security Consultant at SophosLabs, commented on spam state, called the USA and Russia "dirty men of the spam generation" that are polluting the entire Internet e-mail traffic by sending spam and malicious e-mails, reported Vnunet on February 11, 2008.

Theriault also added that the data does not indicate that the sender of spam mails are operating from those countries, but the hackers crack the poorly defended computers so that they can turn them into botnets to spread malware and spam messages.

Sophos explained that the spam mails are global concern and affecting everyone who possesses a computer. The vendor recommends business and computer users to take a proactive approach against spammers by using IT security techniques and spam filtering to keep away from spam.

SophosLabs also explained that spam e-mails are relayed from zombie computers, therefore, the PC sending spam e-mails is not necessarily in the same country, reported AFP on February 12, 2008.

Senior Security Analyst at SophosLabs, Mike Haro, expressed his perception on the incessant spam growth and Russia's emergence as a spam superpower. Mike said that spam-relaying countries should find more measures to defend their computer systems from spam attacks, reported AFP on February 12, 2008.

Related article: RSA Attendees Responsible for Wireless Vulnerability

» SPAMfighter News - 2/26/2008