U.S. Still Leads ‘Dirty Dozen’ of Spam

In its most recent “Dirty Dozen” report concerning the top twelve spam-relaying countries and continents during the second quarter of 2006, threat management solutions leader Sophos indicates that the U.S., once again, is the world’s leading spam channel.

To add insult to injury, this was the first time in more than two years that the U.S. has not reduced the spam flowing out of its borders. This is despite the numerous high-profile arrests and large fines that have occurred in the U.S. in recent months.

“With a concerted focus on regulatory action and judicial punishment, the United States must now intensify its efforts to educate computer users on preventative security measures to curb the infestation of zombie computers,” said senior security analyst at Sophos, Ron O’brien.

The U.S. is responsible for 23.2% of the world’s spam relaying activity, while China and Hong Kong combined are second with 20.0%. South Korea trails far behind with 7.5%, followed by France and Spain to round out the top five.

Despite the U.S.’s leader position in a country-by-country analysis, North America is only the third most active spam relaying continent with about a 25.7% share of all activity. Asia is the most active spam relaying continent responsible for 40.2% of worldwide spam output, while Europe follows behind with 27.1%.

Russia is not included on the “Dirty Dozen” list, although they are infamous for being a nation that is very active in spam activity.

Other key findings included a significant increase in embedded images, which rose from 18.2% in January of 2006 to 35.9% in June of 2006, as well as an increase in pump-and-dump scam emails, which are now 15% of all emails. These emails will oftentimes employ embedded images and attempt to boost corporate stock prices in order to make for a profit-making opportunity.

Sources:

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060724/nem015.html?.v=51

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