Anti-virus and anti-spam firm Sophos has published its latest report into the countries from which most spam messages originate.
Researchers at Sophos scanned all spam messages received at its global network of honey-pots throughout 2004. At the top of the list was the United States, which is responsible for exporting over 42% of all spam.
The top ten spam producing countries are:
• United States - 42.11%
• South Korea - 13.43%
• China (inc HK) - 8.44%
• Canada - 5.71%
• Brazil - 3.34%
• Japan - 2.57%
• France - 1.37%
• Spain - 1.18%
• United Kingdom - 1.13%
• Germany - 1.03%
• Others - 19.69%
Graham Cluley, Senior Technology Consultant for Sophos said,
"When we first reported on the top spamming countries back in February 2004, the USA had the excuse that the CAN-SPAM act had been in existence for a couple of months. Almost a year and millions of spam messages later, it is quite evident that the CAN-SPAM legislation has made very little headway in damming the flood of spam.
Spammers are motivated by one thing - fast and easy money. Many spammers have taken their money-making schemes to the extreme by hacking into innocent third-party computers in an effort to do their dirty work. Many home users' computers are sending out spam because they have had their broadband Internet connections exploited by remote hackers. Zombie computers - PCs that have been compromised by hackers or virus writers - are sending out over 40% of the world's spam, usually to the complete ignorance of the PC's owner."
Sophos notes that the most broadband-connected country in the world, South Korea, has held tightly onto its position as a leading producer of spam.
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