Spam - an American product

Many people believe that spam is coming from offshore (i.e., not from North America). The reasons for that belief are many and varied, but all, nonetheless, unwarranted. In fact, according to Sophos (a security software company), just under 36% of the world's spam originates from the USofA. Article here:Sophos: US leads worldwide spam ranking. Here's the list of top producers, according to their recent study:

South Korea follows the US in second place with 25.0 percent, China and Hong Kong are in third with 9.7 percent. The ranking also includes France (3.2 percent), Spain (2.7 percent), Canada (2.7 percent), Japan (2.1 percent), Brazil (2.0 percent), UK (1.6 percent), Germany (1.2 percent), Australia (1.2 percent), and Poland (1.2 percent).

More troubling -- and probably the reason why the US is so deceptively highly ranked on the list -- is the following statement extracted from the article: "Last month, Sophos estimated that more than 50% of the world's spam came from zombie computers, which are PCs that have been compromised by hackers or virus writers," said Mastoras [a Sophos analyst]."

Posted by Grayson at April 8, 2005 07:55 AM