Techworld.com - The U.S. is still the top spam-relaying country, but its share of the global bane continues to drop, security vendor Sophos PLC has reported in its latest statistics.
The U.S. now accounts for 23.1% of spam sent, down from 24.5% only two months ago. Two years ago, the U.S. accounted for more than half of all relayed spam, the company said.
China is still is second place with 21.9%, and it looks as if the country will overtake the U.S. some time this year to claim the top spot. Other top places in what Sophos has termed the “dirty dozen” are occupied by, successively, South Korea (9.8%), France (4.3%), Poland (3.8%), and Spain (3.3%).
The U.K. is now in tenth place, with 1.0%, still a rise on the January 2006 figure when it ranked fourteenth globally.
The vast majority of spam is now being generated through spam relays -- PCs that have been taken over in an illicit fashion -- with the purpose of sending unwanted email while hiding the sender’s identity.
The decline in the U.S. figures was down to a combination of better legislation and the fact that computer users were now protecting their computers, said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.
"We're seeing spammers being successfully brought to justice in the U.S., but it's important to remember that they can be based anywhere in the world,” he said.
On a continent basis, Asia now heads the spam-sending list with 42.5 percent, with North America second on 25.6%, Europe third with 25%. South America, Australasia and Africa accounted for the remainder.
The figures are compiled by Sophos after analyzing spam that has arrived in the company’s “spam traps."
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