SOPHOS PUBLISHES LATEST "DIRTY DOZEN" OF SPAM RELAYING COUNTRIES

SINGAPORE, Jan 12 (Bernama) -- IT security and control firm Sophos has
published the latest "Dirty Dozen" of spam relaying countries, covering the
fourth quarter of 2010.

The United States increased its lead at the top spot, and continues to be
responsible for nearly one in five junk emails - 18.83 per cent of all spam
messages, according to Sophos in a statement here Wednesday.

It said the US domination of the list underlined the continuing problem of
computers being compromised by hackers in the country, allowing them to be
remotely controlled for criminal purposes without the owners' knowledge.

Sophos noted that while the same countries continue to dominate in terms of
spam output, the nature of the spam being distributed is becoming more
malicious.

Traditional subject matter such as adverts for pharmaceuticals continued to
be a concern, with some 36 million Americans reported to purchase drugs from
unlicensed online sellers, but more and more messages were spreading malware
and were attempting to phish user names, passwords and personal information,
Sophos added.

The remaining top 11 spam-relaying countries for October to December 2010
listed by Sophos were India, Brazil, Russia, United Kingdom, France,
Italy, South Korea, Germany, Vietnam, Romania and Spain.

Sophos warned that there had also been an increase in more focused, targeted
email attacks, known as "spearphishing".

There has been also increase in the number of compromised profiles and
unwanted messages spreading across social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

Sophos also rated the top spam-relaying continents for October to December
2010 with Europe leading the pack with 32.11 per cent, Asia (31.89 per cent),
North America (22.38 per cent), South America (10.25 per cent) and Africa (2.12
per cent).
-- BERNAMA