The United States is still No. 1 — in spam.
According to Sophos, the United States is the source of 15.2 percent of all global spam messages in the second quarter of 2010, up from 13.1 percent in the first three months of the year. In second place is India with 7.7 percent. Brazil, the United Kingdom and South Korea make up the rest of the top five at 5.5, 4.6 and 4.2 percent, respectively.
As a continent, however, Europe leads the way with 35 percent, just ahead of Asia with 30.9 percent. North America meanwhile was the source of 18.9 percent of all spam.
According to Sophos, spam e-mails make up 97 percent of all e-mails received by business e-mail servers, putting a strain on network resources. Behind those spam e-mails are infected computers controlled by botnets that sometimes include hundreds of thousands of computers.
“Spam will continue to be a global problem for as long as it makes money for the spammers,” Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant, explained in a statement. “It makes commercial sense for the criminals to continue if even a tiny proportion of recipients clicks on the links.”