"Zombie computers - PCs which have been compromised by hackers or virus writers - are sending out approximately 40% of the world's spam, all without the apparent knowledge of the user."

Researchers scanned all spam messages received at its global network of honeypots in the last month and have revealed the top twelve spam producing countries. The United States remains by far the worst offender, exporting 42.53% of all spam.

"Almost nine months on from the CAN-SPAM legislation and the United States' attempt to clean up its act appears to have had little impact. The States is still, by far, the biggest exporter of spam in the world," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "Canada has made some progress, however, cutting the percentage of the world's junk email sent from the country by over half - from 6.8% six months ago to 2.9% today."

Sophos notes that the most broadband-connected country in the world, South Korea, has consolidated its position as a leading producer of spam - almost tripling the percentage of spam originating from its shores since February.

"Spammers are motivated by watching their bank accounts get fatter and fatter, and many have turned to hacking into innocent third-party computers to send their junk emails," said Cluley. "Many of the computers sending out spam are likely to have had their broadband internet connections exploited by remote hackers."

Sophos urges computer users not to purchase products advertised via spam, and to deploy a consolidated solution at the email gateway which can protect against both spam and viruses.


©2004, Sophos Plc. All Rights Reserved.