Russia
might be a country trying to regain superpower status, but it has
already reached it in one less welcome area - the amount of spam it
sends to the world.
According to Sophos's Q4 2007 spam report, the country now
deserves the moniker of 'spam superpower' having seen its share of
total volumes rise dramatically over the last year, to put it in firmly
in second place behind arch-rival, the US.
The first
three quarters of 2007 saw the country's share shoot up from 3% of spam
volumes in Q1, to 3.1% in Q2, 4.4% in Q3, before hitting 8.3% in the
new figures. As recently as 2006, the country's share for the whole
year was only 1.8%, which saw it at 11th place in the Sophos
spam-sending league table.
Russia is already prominent for other types of internet criminality,
such as malware and exploits, boosted by the near-mythical
super-network, the Russian Business Network, which supposedly went out
of business in November.
Sophos was keen to stress that the figures partly reflect the number of
compromised botnet PCs in Russia that have been hijacked as relays, and
do not simply reflect the amount of spam that actually originates in
the country. Nevertheless, the rise of Russia into second place, with
no sign of volumes slowing, is bound to add to the country's bad, if
sometimes unfair, image for being a malware-sending hotspot.
"We think that's a pretty interesting increase and change in the chart
over the years," commented Graham Cluley of Sophos. "Of course, Russia
has its fair share of spammers - and we see a good amount of Russian
language spam advertising training courses and goods which are clearly
of Russian origin."
It's not just the Russians who deserve bad press from the latest
figures. The US sent a towering 21.3% of global spam over the quarter,
with China in third place behind Russia with 4.2%, and a clutch of
countries including many European ones, not far behind. Russians will
also no doubt point out that Europe's overall spam-relaying figures
dwarf that of their country. Europe's combined total is now a
concerning 27.1%.
The good news for the US is that its spam volumes are in decline, while
other are climbing. Judging by the latest increases, Russia could in
theory overtake the US in the next two years, though spam statistics
are notoriously hard to predict. It is just as likely that other part
of the world will come to the fore.
Source: www.computerworld.co.nz
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