Spam shame continues for USA as UK exits Dirty Dozen

Sophos has published its latest report into the top twelve spam relaying countries, covering the first quarter of 2009. The United States of America continues its reign as the king of spam, relaying more than 15 percent of global spam messages. Conversely, the United Kingdom has disappeared from the “Dirty Dozen’ for the first time in two years, polling 14th overall, and relaying 2.1 percent of the world’s spam.

Brazil has seen the biggest increase in spam output, jumping from fourth to second place since last quarter. The country is now the source of more than ten percent of spam emails, compared to 4.3 percent during the same period last year. Germany joins the UK in dropping out of the top twelve since last quarter, with Poland and Columbia returning to the table for the first time since Q2 and Q3 2008 respectively.

The top twelve spam relaying countries for January to March 2009 are as follows:

1. United States 15.8%
2. Brazil 10.2%
3. China (incl HK) 7.7%
4. India 5.1%
5. Turkey 4.1%
=6. South Korea 3.8%
=6. Russia 3.8%
8. Spain 3.0%
9. Argentina 2.8%
=10. Poland 2.6%
=10. Colombia 2.6%
12. Italy 2.3%

Other 36.2%

The blight of inboxes, spam accounts for a staggering 97 percent of all email received by business email servers, putting both a strain on resources and wasting a huge amount of time to lost productivity. Used largely as a method for selling counterfeit or illicit goods, virtually all spam comes from malware infected computers (called bots, or zombies) that are controlled by “botherder’ cybercriminals.

Computer users can unwittingly allow their PCs to become part of a botnet in a number of ways, including clicking on malicious links that are frequently contained within the spam messages that the botnets are used to distribute. The only way for users and administrators to reduce the risk of being compromised is to run anti-spam and anti-malware protection and ensure all software and hardware is up to date with security patches.

By continent, Asia continues to dominate in spam, with more than a third of the world’s unsolicited junk email relayed by the region. Although the US remains the top offender by country, North America as a whole has reduced its spam throughput since last quarter, dropping from second to third place. The breakdown of spam relaying by continent is as follows:

January to March 2009

1. Asia 34.8%
2. Europe 23.6%
3. North America 19.4%
4. South America 19.0%
5. Africa 2.0%

Other 1.2%