US tops Sophos's “Dirty Dozen” spam relaying countries

IT security and control firm Sophos has published its report on the latest trends in spam, revealing the top 12 spam-relaying countries for the second quarter of 2009.

By scanning all spam messages caught in SophosLabs' global network of spam traps, researchers have identified the top 'Dirty Dozen' spam relaying nations between April and June this year.

During the second quarter of 2009, the USA continued to relay more spam than any other country - the nation's 15.6% contribution to global spam traffic meaning that more than one in six junk e-mails were sent through compromised computers in the country. In contrast, Russia, a former spam super-power, continues to fall down the ranks.

Russia currently resides at ninth position in the chart, relaying a mere 3.2% of spam messages. This represents a significant reduction compared to the same time last year when the country came second only to the United States, and was responsible for relaying 7.5% of all spam e-mails.

Poland has seen the biggest single increase in spam output since the last quarter, moving up from 10th to sixth place in this global 'hall of shame', with the country now responsible for relaying 4.2% of all the world's electronic junk messages. Colombia is the only nation to have left the 'Dirty Dozen' since Q1 2009, with Vietnam a new entry this quarter.

The top 12 countries responsible for relaying spam across the globe between April and June 2009 are as follows:

1. United States 15.6%
2. Brazil 11.1%
3. Turkey 5.2%
4. India 5%
5. South Korea 4.7%
6. Poland 4.2%
7. China (incl Hong Kong) 4.1%
8. Spain 3.4%
9. Russia 3.2%
10. Italy 2.8%
11. Argentina 2.5%
12. Vietnam 2.3%
Other 35.9%

South Africa is at number 61, responsible for 0.17% of spam.

Barack Obama's recent speech on cyber-security emphasised the threat posed by overseas criminals and enemy states, but these figures prove that there is a significant problem in his own backyard. “If America could clean up its compromised PCs it would be a considerable benefit to everyone around the world who uses the net,” says Brett Myroff, CEO of regional Sophos distributor, Sophos South Africa. "All Web users need to properly defend their computers from attack, and pledge to never act upon spam messages."

Over the past year, the booming popularity of social networking - in particular, micro-blogging service Twitter - has driven growth in services such as TinyURL, bit.ly and is.gd. The services are used to create conveniently shortened links that redirect to Web pages with lengthier URLs. This is being exploited by hackers that will use the services to obscure links to offensive material or malicious Web sites, and then distribute the links in spam e-mails, as well as posting them on Twitter and other networks.

Earlier this year, link-shortening service Cligs was attacked by hackers, who redirected links created with the service to a single site of their choice - demonstrating how unsuspecting Web users can find themselves visiting unexpected Web sites when clicking on shortened links. As social networking and related online services continue to grow in popularity, Sophos experts note that poorly protected computer users could become more vulnerable to a wider range of spam attacks.

"Clearly the problem isn't going away, as is illustrated by the large number of sprawling spam campaigns we see on a daily basis," Myroff says. "Although it may seem encouraging to see reductions in the volume of spam that certain countries are contributing, authorities, ISPs and home users across the world need to be doing more to curb the spam problem."

Overall by continent, Asia continues to be the biggest offender. Almost a third of spam messages originated in the region for the second quarter of 2009, with the nations of South Korea and China being the biggest contributors.

1. Asia 31.7%
2. Europe 27.1%
3. South America 19.4%
4. North America 18.8%
5. Africa 2%
6. Oceania 0.6%
Other 0.4%

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