Pitcairns top spam per head chart

The US, China and Russia may be responsible for a large proportion of the world's spam email but other, smaller nations are also playing their role.

Statistics from security firm Sophos suggest that it is the Pitcairn Islands that actually produces the highest ratio of unsolicited email compared to its overall population.

On a per-person basis, the former British colony in the South Pacific pumps out more spam than much larger nations.

The next worst offenders per-person are Niue and Tokelau, also in the South Pacific, followed by the Caribbean island of Anguilla and the Faroe Islands.

"Most of the countries in this chart have very small populations compared to the usual offenders, but their totals are sky-high when it comes to spam emitted on a per-person basis," said Carole Theriault, senior security consultant at Sophos.

However, Theriault said that this could be down to lax security, which can lead to hackers turning your PC into a spam-producing 'bot', more than anything else.

"Just because your PC is located on a remote island in the South Pacific, doesn't mean it's not contributing to the global spam problem. All computer users, wherever they are in the world, need to wake up to the threats and ensure their PCs are properly protected," she said.

www.sophos.com