UK drops out of global spam dirty dozen

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It was good news for the UK in terms of the global spam league last quarter, as it dropped out of the top 12 spam-relaying countries for the first time in two years.

The UK came 14th overall in the spam report for the first quarter (Q1) of 2009 published today by IT security specialist Sophos, having relayed just 2.1 per cent of the world's spam during January to March of this year.

Graham Cluley, Sophos senior technology consultant told IT PRO it was hard to say why exactly UK spam levels had fallen. “It may just be that a larger proportion of spam is coming from other countries, like Brazil [which came in at the top two spot] and other parts of the world,” he said.

He also suggested the UK’s improvement may also be because more organisations are using anti-spam and anti-virus software or due to efforts on the part of internet service providers (ISPs) and security firms to close down and stop the spread of botnets.

“Although the percentage of spam relayed through the UK last quarter dropped, we’ll only really know if the drop will be permanent if it fails to appear in the top twelve over the next few quarters,” he added. “Fingers crossed it does.”

The US continued to be top of the global spam stakes, relaying 15.8 per cent of all spam sent during Q1, while Brazil saw the biggest increase in spam output, jumping from fourth with 4.3 per cent to second place since last quarter, with 10.2 per cent. And China rounded out the top three on 7.7 per cent.

Cluley said Brazil had shot up the ranks. “It’s no secret that the country has long been associated with cybercrime – in particular the spread of banking Trojans – however, a surge like this could also be a by-product of China’s slip down the charts. In any case, it’s certainly a trend to keep a close eye on.”

Germany joined the UK in dropping out of the top 12 since last quarter, while Poland and Columbia in joint 10th place with 2.6 per cent returned to the table for the first time since the second and third quarters of 2008 respectively.

Overall, the research found spam accounted for a staggering 97 per cent of all email received by business email servers last quarter, which Cluley said showed people were still being duped by spam despite the use of security software.

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