Latest report on top spam relaying countries

Sophos has published its latest report on the top twelve spam-relaying countries for the first quarter of 2008. Experts at SophosLabs scanned all spam messages received in the company’s global network of spam traps, and have revealed that 92.3 percent of all email sent during the first three months of 2008 was spam. In addition, during this period, Sophos found 23,300 new spam-related webpages every day, or one about every three seconds.

For the first time Turkey’s contribution to the global spam problem puts it in the top three offending countries. Compromised computers in Turkey are now responsible for relaying 5.9 percent of the world’s spam, compared to 3.8 percent in the final quarter of 2007.

Between January and March 2008, the US and Russia maintained first and second place respectively, but both countries did manage to reduce their contribution to the worldwide spam problem compared to the final three months of 2007. However, over the last year the number of spam messages sent from compromised Russian computers has more than doubled. In the first quarter of 2007, Russia was in tenth position in the chart, relaying just three percent of the world’s spam – today this figure stands at 7.4 percent.

Elsewhere in the chart, the UK is at number ten, responsible for relaying 3.4 percent of all spam, up from 2.5 percent and 12th place in the final quarter of 2007.

Turkey’s appearance in the top three makes for an interesting realignment so early on in the year, but does not mean that other countries can give up the fight – spam is a global problem and must be tackled as such. The US continues to relay far more spam than any other country, but the gap is closing, suggesting that users may be receiving more education on safe computing and becoming more security savvy than before.