USA is the Top Spam Offender Nation in Q2

Currently the United States is the biggest spam-contributing nation, however Asia still ranks #1 as the largest continent distributing spam worldwide.


A report from IT security solutions provider Sohpos reveals that the United States currently reigns as #1 on the company's top twelve list of spam-relaying countries. In the second quarter of 2009, the U.S. was responsible for 15.6-percent, followed closely by Brazil's 11.1-percent. Turkey, third on the list, only comprised 5.2-percent of the world's spam, with India taking up another 5-percent.

Russia, the former spam "super-power," continues to fall down the ranks according to the report. "Russia currently resides at ninth position in the chart, relaying a mere 3.2-percent of spam messages," Sophos said. "This represents a significant reduction compared to the same time last year when the country came second only to the United States and was responsible for relaying 7.5-percent of all spam emails."

Sohpos paints a different picture when observing sources of spam on a continent level. During the April to June quarter, Asia proved to be the dominant spam distributor, providing 31.7-percent. Europe came in second, comprising 27.1-percent while South America followed with 19.4-percent. North America was the fourth largest culprit on the list, cranking out 18.8-percent of the world's spam.

"Clearly the problem isn't going away, as is illustrated by the large number of sprawling spam campaigns we see on a daily basis," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "Although it may seem encouraging to see reductions in the volume of spam that certain countries are contributing, authorities, ISPs and home users across the world need to be doing more to crack down on the spam problem."