ITWire

Sophos notes that the work of the ACMA and an industry-wide commitment to the iCode initiative has reduced Australia's share of worldwide spam from around 1% in September 2010 to 0.26% in the current quarter.

Additionally, North America's share has also steadily decreased, with the US falling from its traditional first or second place to 4th (with 6.2%) in the current survey.

However, someone has to make up any shortfall. Not even the decapitation of the Grum botnet seems to have made much difference.

In the April - June 2012 quarter, Asian sources were responsible for relaying 49.7% of all spam messages according to Sophos' global network of spam traps.

According to Sophos, "Despite only 5.3% of the world's internet users reportedly living in India, the country topped the list by a significant margin and was accountable for 11.4% of the world's spam seen throughout April, May and June."

The US dropped from the top spot of spam-relaying countries to second place in Q1, and has now moved down to fourth place behind India, Italy and South Korea.

The top countries are as follows:

1. India 11.4%

2. Italy 7%

3. South Korea 6.7%

4. USA 6.2%

5. Vietnam 5.8%

6. Brazil 4.4%

7. Pakistan 3.7%

8. China 3.2%

9. France 3.1%

10. Russia 2.9%

11. Poland 2.7%

12. Taiwan 2.6%

Other 40.3%

"Spam emails make up an average of 45-50% of corporate email - that is one unwanted, unsolicited message for every important communication!" said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. "We all pay the price: our email systems have to process and deliver the message, and our own time is wasted dealing with the spam email once it is in our inbox."

Organised by continent, Asia is clearly the worst:

1. Asia 49.7%

2. Europe 26.4%

3. South America 11.2%

4. North America 8.6%

5. Africa 3.6%

6. Other 0.5%

According to Cluley, "The chief driver for Asia's dominance in the spam charts is the sheer number of compromised computers in the continent. Malicious hackers hijack poorly-protected computers, and command them - without their owners realising - to send out unwanted money-making messages and malicious links. Everyone has a responsibility to ensure that their PC or Mac is properly defended against such attacks. If they take no care over their computers they're simply adding to the world's spam problem."