Spam becomes more malicious

The US has achieved top spot as the country that distributes the most spam in the world, and is responsible for nearly one-in-five junk e-mails, representing 18.6% of all spam messages.

This is according to a Sophos report entitled 'Dirty Dozen' covering spam-related countries in the fourth quarter of 2010.

"Spam is certainly here to stay, however, the motivations and the methods are continuing to change in order to reap the greatest rewards for the spammers," says Brett Myroff, CEO of regional Sophos distributor, Sophos SA.

Myroff adds: "Becoming even more prevalent is the mailing of links to compromised Web pages, where victims are tricked into clicking a link in an e-mail, and then taken to a site which attacks their computer with exploits or attempts to install fake anti-virus software."

Sophos states: “The US' domination of the list underlines the continuing problem of computers being compromised by hackers in the country, allowing them to be remotely controlled for criminal purposes without the owners' knowledge.”

Sophos notes that while the same countries continue to dominate in terms of spam output, the nature of the spam being distributed is becoming more malicious.

Traditional subject matter such as adverts for pharmaceuticals continue to be a concern, with some 36 million Americans reported to purchase drugs from unlicensed online sellers.

However, the security vendor warns that more messages are spreading malware and attempting to phish for user names, passwords and personal information.

In second position is India (6.88%) and third place is Brazil (5.04%). SA came in the 56th position as an overall spam produced and distributes 0.23% of the world's spam e-mails.

Sophos says the UK decreased its percentage of total spam output compared to the third quarter of last year - from 5% to 4.54% - however, it remains in fifth place overall.

Sophos warns that there has also been an increase in more focused, targeted e-mail attacks, known as 'spearphishing'. The security company says it is receiving an increased number of reports of malicious applications, compromised profiles and unwanted messages spreading across social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

Myroff explains that Internet users need to be aware of the new approaches to cyber crime as the spamming techniques become more and more sophisticated.

“As long as spammers continue to make money from these schemes, Internet users can be sure that they'll continue to receive unsolicited e-mails and social networking scams.

“To combat this, it's essential that users remain wary of clicking on unknown links, regardless of whether they appear to be on a trusted contact's social networking page," Myroff says.

Sophos recommends that companies automatically update their corporate virus protection, and run a consolidated solution at their e-mail and Web gateways to defend against spam and viruses.

Sophos advises home users to defend their computers with virus protection, to prevent becoming part of a botnet used for the purposes of sending spam.