Sophos warns all internet users to be more careful in protecting their computers
July 31, 2012 by Network Security
Filed under News
IT security and data protection company Sophos has released the newest ‘Dirty Dozen’ of spam-relaying countries, covering the second quarter of 2012. While the United States of America is in a downtrend with the percentage of spam it relayed by email, Asia is registering a rise and is now accountable for sending 49.7% of all spam filtered in SophosLabs’s international network of spam traps.
Despite only 5.3% of the web users allegedly live in India, the country lead the list by a significant edge and was responsible for 11.4% of the spam seen throughout Apr, May and June 2011.
The UK has handled to stay out of the top 12 spam-relaying nations for the last four quarters, having last showed up in Apr – June 2011.
The US dropped from the top position of spam-relaying countries to second position in Q1, and has now shifted down to 4th position behind India, Italy and South Korea.
The top 12 spam-relaying countries for April to June 2012 are the following:
1 India 11.4%
2 Italy 7.0%
3 South Korea 6.7%
4 USA 6.2%
5 Vietnam 5.8%
6 Brazil 4.4%
7 Pakistan 3.7%
8 China 3.2%
9 France 3.1%
10 Russia 2.9%
11 Poland 2.7%
12 Taiwan 2.6%
Other 40.3%
“Spam emails make up an average of 45-50% of corporate email – that is one unwanted, unsolicited message for every important communication!” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. “We all pay the price: our email systems have to process and deliver the message, and our own time is wasted dealing with the spam email once it is in our inbox.”
Sophos recommends that organisations and ISPs implement technology and follow best practice to ensure that malicious emails are not reaching inboxes.
Asia increased its level of spam output, and the continent is now responsible for almost half of the world’s spam. Europe is responsible for about a quarter, while North America produced nearly 9%.
Top spam relaying continents for April-June 2012 are as follows:
Continent
1 Asia 49.7%
2 Europe 26.4%
3 South America 11.2%
4 North America 8.6%
5 Africa 3.6%
Other 0.5%
“The chief driver for Asia’s dominance in the spam charts is the sheer number of compromised computers in the continent,” explained Cluley. “Malicious hackers hijack poorly-protected computers, and command them – without their owners realising – to send out unwanted money-making messages and malicious links. Everyone has a responsibility to ensure that their PC or Mac is properly defended against such attacks. If they take no care over their computers they’re simply adding to the world’s spam problem.”
