The Spam Dirty Dozen: Top Spam-Relaying Countries for Q3 2012

IT security and data protection firm Sophos has published its latest ‘Dirty Dozen’ report of spam-relaying countries for the third quarter of 2012. Since the previous quarter, India has grown its lead at the top of the hall of shame, and now relays 16.1 percent of all spam captured in SophosLabs’ global network of spam traps.

The U.S., which was once a permanent fixture as the leading superpower in the spam stakes and last topped the table in the same period a year ago, has risen one place since last quarter and now relays one in 15 of all spam emails.

The UK, which has managed to remain out of the top 12 spam-relaying countries for the last four consecutive quarters (having last appeared in April – June 2011), makes a return to the list, in twelfth place.

This slideshow features the top 12 spam-relaying countries for July to September 2012, according to Sophos.

Click through for the top 12 spam-relaying countries for the third quarter of 2012.

India – 16.1 percent

As noted in Sophos’s April-June 2012 Dirty Dozen report, India is home to 5.3 percent of the world’s Internet users, making it the third most connected country in the world, after China and the USA. However, given that only 10.2 percent of the population of India are Internet users, the current lack of IT security measures taken to protect computers in the region will likely lead to further problems as more of India’s citizens get online.

Italy – 9.4 percent

Italy takes second place, relaying 9.4 percent of spam mail detected during the third quarter of 2012.

USA – 6.5 percent

The U.S., which was once a permanent fixture as the leading superpower in the spam stakes and last topped the table in the same period a year ago, has risen one place since last quarter and now relays one in 15 of all spam emails.

Saudi Arabia – 5.1 percent

Saudi Arabia is the top new entry this quarter, relaying a significant 5.1 percent of spam for the period. This is likely caused by the Festi botnet, which successfully infected many computers there in August and then used the computers to swamp the rest of the world with large quantities of spam.

Brazil – 4.0 percent

Brazil takes fifth place, relaying 4.0 percent of spam mail detected during the third quarter of 2012.

Turkey – 3.8 percent

New entries since last quarter are Turkey and Germany, while Pakistan, Russia, Poland and Thailand have all dropped out of the table.

France – 3.7 percent

France appears in seventh place for this quarter, relaying 3.7 percent of spam emails.

South Korea – 3.6 percent

South Korea follows closely at 3.6 percent.

Vietnam – 3.4 percent

In ninth place, Vietnam relayed 3.4 percent of spam emails.

China 3.1 percent

China came in tenth with 3.1 percent.

German – 2.7 percent

Like Turkey, Germany is a new entry since last quarter.

UK – 2.1 percent

The UK, which has managed to remain out of the top 12 spam-relaying countries for the last four consecutive quarters (having last appeared in April – June 2011), makes a return to the list, in twelfth place.