US still top spam generator

Over a quarter of all spam email in the third quarter of this year originated in the US, according to figures.

South Korea is the world's second biggest producer of unsolicited email, but only accounts for 5.2 per cent of all spam compared America's 28.4 per cent.

The UK is tenth in the list, responsible for 2.4 per cent of all spam. The figures were compiled by security firm Sophos.

"It seems as though a major American spammer is arrested every other week at the moment, but despite these high-profile lawbreakers being put away, the US continues to relay far more spam than any other nation on the planet," said Carole Theriault, senior security consultant at Sophos.

One of the world's most notorious spammers, Robert Soloway, was arrested in the US back in May but according to email management company SoftScan the effect on spam levels was minimal.

The problem of spam, according to Sophos, is down to the huge network of 'bot' computers, that have been compromised by hackers and programmed to send out vast quantities of email without their owners' knowledge.

"This level of activity can't be attributed solely to the slick operations of a few cash-hungry criminals. The problem is there are thousands of spammers using many thousands of compromised zombie computers in the US," said Theriault.

However, the solution lies in education, said Theriault, and ISPs in the US need to monitor their networks much more carefully.

"The only way we're going to reduce the problem is if US authorities invest a lot more in educating computer users of the dangers, while ensuring ISPs step up their monitoring efforts to identify these compromised machines as early as possible."

www.sophos.com
www.softscan.co.uk

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