The U.S. is sending fewer spam e-mail messages out into cyberspace, but the unpermissioned output from China is on the increase, according to a new report from security firm SophosLabs.
Two years ago, half of the global spam sent originated in the U.S., but the Sophos report found that proportion has now dropped to less than a quarter, due to crackdowns on spammers and tighter filtering and information-sharing among Internet service providers. But China, including Hong Kong, now accounts for 21.9% of the world’s total spam volume.
From a continental perspective, Asia leads in spam production, with 42.8% of world-wide output coming from its computers. North America ranks second with 25.6% of the total, closely followed by Europe with 25%.
“Europe is in danger of overtaking North America as the second worst spam-relaying part of the world,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, noting that the continental shift is inevitable as North America continues to reduce its spammers through enforcement of laws like Can-Spam. He urged computer users to install software defenses to keep their PCs from being taken over and used as spam “zombies”.
