If you have ever taken the time to read over a few of your spam email messages, you’ve no doubt marveled at some of the atrocious spelling and grammar contained therein. Many of the errors you see are in fact deliberate, made in an attempt to slip the email through text-based spam filters. However, as you might suspect from the quality of the writing, a lot of the spam you receive does not originate in the United States, or from native English speakers.
As web security firm Kaspersky Lab reports, the United States relinquished its position on the top 20 list of spam-sending countries back in November of 2010. However, the U.S. resurfaced again in January of 2011 at the 14th position, with the country sending out 2.07 percent of all global spam.
As of January 2011, India is the nation from which the most spam is originating, sending 9.0 percent of all unsolicited bulk email. Russia closely follows in second place, originating 8.2 percent of global junk email. Ranking third, Italy currently accounts for 5.1 percent of spam email.
Brazil and Indonesia are tied for fourth place, each sending 4.3 percent of the spam in circulation. Great Britain and Bulgaria follow, responsible for 3.8 and 3.4 percent of global spam, respectively. The remainder of the top 20 list is completed, in descending order, by South Korea, Poland, Vietnam, Ukraine, Argentina, Spain, the U.S., Romania, Columbia, and Serbia, with Chile, France, and Greece sharing last place with equal claims to 1.7 percent of today’s spam. Just under one-third–32.3 percent, to be exact–of global spam comes from other countries not included in the top 20 list.
The U.S. had dropped off the top 20 list at the end of 2010 in large part due to law enforcement crackdowns on botnet activity with significant domestic footholds. As Kaspersky Lab points out, the strong resurgence of spam originating in the U.S. is a clear signal that spammers are making strong efforts to reclaim Americans’ computers for use in their zombie spam networks.
While we can hope prosecution of major spammers will continue to erode computer security threats, our first line of defense against those who would hijack our computers for use in a botnet is still superior, up-to-date managed email and web security systems.
No related posts.
Posted in: Spam
Follow us: