United States and China top spam relaying countries

Experts at SophosLabs scanned all spam messages received in the company’s global network of spam traps, and have revealed that yet again, the US relayed considerably more spam than other nations, with just under a fifth (19.8%) of the world’s spam originating from US-based computers. Surprisingly however, Sophos notes the unexpected ascendancy of Poland in the dirty dozen – with the country now lying in third place – as well as first-time appearances for Russia, India and Italy in the chart. The UK, which sat in tenth place during Q1 2006, has managed to bypass being named and shamed, occupying 13th place and accounting for 2.2% of all spam relayed..

According to Sophos, the overall volume of spam rose by around 4.2% during Q1 2007, when compared to the same period in 2006.

“The US stands out like a sore thumb in this dirty dozen,” said Carole Theriault, senior security consultant at Sophos. “China, who until recently was an intimate rival to the US, dropped dramatically during the last quarter. Poland, on the other hand, has now gate-crashed the top three. The fact that its population, and undoubtedly its number of computers, is much lower than the likes of Russia, India, China and the States, suggests that Polish users need to take a close look at the security holes on their computers. Polish authorities would be wise to educate users on safe computing to ensure that they are not responsible for sending out massive gluts of spam.”

Between January and March 2006 Poland was responsible for just 3.8% of spam-relaying, almost half its current percentage. Though the US remains in first place, it has reduced its relaying in the past twelve months, suggesting that the nation is getting clued up about securing its computers.