Small Pitcairn Islands Spams Out Most Junk

While the US, Russia and China may be originators of the world's major spam other smaller countries are also joining in. Data from Sophos, a security firm, suggests that the group of Pitcairn Islands actually generate the highest percentage of junk e-mail against the total population it holds.

At the rate of a single person, this previous British colony located in the South Pacific, pushes out spam in amounts larger than that of the bigger nations. The second worst spam-generating nations per individual are Tokelau and Niue, also situated in the South Pacific, with the Faroe Islands and the Caribbean Island of Anguilla as next.

Sophos also showed that the greatest spam-producing countries comprising, US, China and Russia that produced 33.8% of total spam in the fourth quarter of 2007 are notably missing from the chart of that period.

When the greatest three spam-producing nations are assessed in terms of their population, United States ranks 64, Russia 45 and China far down to 132. Australia, which is the 33rd worst spam-relaying nation, globally falls to the 85th position when rated in terms of per capita.

Carole Theriault, Senior Security Consultant, Sophos, said that a majority of the nations listed on the chart have much less population than the usual wrong doers but their total spam is sky-high at the rate of a single person, as reported by Webuser on March 10, 2008.

According to Theriault, this could happen due to lax in security, which could allow hackers to covert a computer into a bot to use it to pump out spam. It is not necessary that if a PC is placed in a remote region like an island situated in the South Pacific, it will not be used to generate spam. All users of computers, no matter in which part of the world, need to become alert about such threats and make sure their computers are adequately protected.

Spam, which refers to unsolicited e-mails, is a global annoyance that can slow down systems. Sophos in its study does not determine the place where spam originates but which nations relay the junk.

Related article: Small Organizations Too Can Be Hackers’ Target

» SPAMfighter News - 3/18/2008