LYNNFIELD, Massachusetts - The United States continues to lead the world as the country where most of the spam originates, but was being fast caught up by China and South Korea, says that latest 'Dirty Dozen' report by security firm Sophos.
But the United States and Canada dropped the level of spam coming out of their respective countries, while the output from South Korea, China and France rose in the last six months. The percentage of spam coming out of the US dropped to 26.35 percent in the six months between April and September this year. This figure is lower than the 41.50 percent that was registered over the previous six months.
"Efforts such as ISPs sharing knowledge on how to crack down on spammers, and authorities enforcing CAN-SPAM legislation, have helped North America thwart the efforts of spammers on their doorsteps. Some of the most prolific spammers have been forced to either quit the business or relocate overseas as a result," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. The introduction of jail sentences for spammers, better legislation and a general increase in security also contributed towards this fall.
Sophos' report also said that 60 percent of all the spam now originated from zombie computers. These systems are hijacked by remote hackers and are used to send spam without the owners' knowledge or consent. "What the chart reveals is that spammers and virus writers can exploit unprotected computers anywhere in the world to send out their unwanted messages," Cluley confirmed. Pakistan was a new entrant into this list and was placed at the eleventh position.
Cluley said that the dark side of the Internet was inviting to these spammers and they would soon turn to spyware and identity theft malware when spam became obsolete.
Posted
on : Mon, 17 Oct 2005 05:05 GMT | General News
By : Salim Patel
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