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China, once a contender to the IS spam crown has dropped considerably. urprisingly, however, Sophos noted the unexpected ascendancy of Poland in the dirty dozen - with the country now lying in third place - as well as a first time appearance for India in the chart.
Australia and New Zealand, which sit in 35th (0.5%) and 64th (0.1%) positions respectively, have managed to bypass being named and shamed in this latest dirty dozen list.
According to Sophos, the overall volume of spam rose by around 4.2% during Q1 2007, when compared with the same period in 2006.
The top twelve spam relaying countries are as follows:
January to March 2007
1. United States 19.8%
2. China (including Hong Kong) 7.5%
3. Poland 7.4%
4. South Korea 7.0%
5. Italy 5.0%
6. France 4.1%
7. Germany 3.7%
8. Spain 3.5%
9. Brazil 3.1%
10. Russia 3.0%
11. India 2.8%
12. Taiwan 2.5%
Other 30.6%
“The US stands out like a sore thumb in this dirty dozen," said Carole Theriault, senior security consultant at Sophos. "China, which until recently was an intimate rival to the US, dropped dramatically during the last quarter. Poland, on the other hand, has now gate-crashed the top three.
“The fact that its population, and undoubtedly its number of computers, is much lower than for the likes of Russia, India, China and the States, suggests that Polish users need to take a close look at the security holes on their computers. Polish authorities would be wise to educate users on safe computing to ensure that they are not responsible for sending out massive gluts of spam."
Between January and March 2006 Poland was responsible for just 3.8% of spam-relaying, almost half its current percentage.
Though the US remains in first place, it has reduced its relaying in the past twelve months, suggesting that the nation's users are getting clued-up about securing their computers.
