US top spam-relaying country
p2p news / p2pnet: America leads the world —– as the Number One spam-relaying country.
So says UK security firm Sophos in its 2006 Dirty Dozen for the last quarter of 2005.
But, “although the United States still heads up the chart, it has made significant reductions, and for the first time accounts for less than a quarter of all spam relayed,” says the company.
Meanwhile, the level of non-English language spam is, “continuing to increase, with the vast majority now being relayed by ‘zombie’ computers hijacked by Trojan horses, worms and viruses under the control of hackers,” says Sophos, going on:
“Sizeable increases are also happening in ‘pump-and-dump’ stock spam, designed to artificially inflate stock prices before spammers sell shares at considerable profit.”
The bad news is, “the contribution of China is up by seven percentage points since October 2005, as the spam economy takes off over there,” says Sophos spokesman Graham Cluley. “Further bad news – and perhaps more of a surprise – is the continued rise in the percentage of spam from France, which has gone from 1.2% a year ago, to 3.5% in October 2005, to 5%.”
The top twelve spam relaying countries are:
- United States – 24.5%
- China (inc Hong Kong) – 22.3%
- South Korea – 9.7%
- France – 5.0%
- Canada – 3.0%
- Brazil – 2.6%
- Spain – 2.5%
- Austria – 2.4%
- Taiwan – 2.1%
- Poland – 2.0%
- Japan – 2.0%
- Germany – 1.8%
- Others 20.3%
The fact the dirty dozen is made up of of nations from four different continents, “gives an indication as to the nature of the spam problem,” states Cluely.
“Zombie computers – responsible for relaying more than 60% of the world’s spam – can allow spammers to escape country-specific legislation, as they no longer have to be located in the same country as the spamming machines they operate.”
Also See:
Sophos – US tops stats again, as top spam-relaying countries revealed, January 23, 2006
