The U.S. boasts some dubious distinctions. But for the past year or so, being a global leader in spam distribution is no longer one of them.
A survey conducted by Maria Namestnikova, an expert at Kaspersky Labs, found that the U.S. has consistently placed well outside the world's top 10 spam distributors since last September. According to Namestnikova's research, the U.S. only produced 1.5 percent of total spam in July. Ironically, India clutched the top spot with over 14 percent originating from within its borders. Surely that's outsourcing Americans can get behind.
Namestnikova said that the shift is due in part to the closure of several aggressive, high-output botnets.
"After the Pushdo/Cutwail, Bredolab and Rustock botnets were taken offline, the geography of spam sources underwent some major changes," said Namestnikova. "The US and some European countries have been replaced by Asian and Latin American countries."
Rustock was killed off earlier this year by U.S. authorities with help from Microsoft. However, experts pointed out other botnets quickly picked up the slack.
Following India, the top spam distributors are Indonesia, Brazil and Peru said Namestnikova. Combined, the three countries produce nearly 30 percent of global spam. South Korea sends out 4 percent, while Taiwan closely trails with a 3 percent contribution. Over 18 percent of spam comes from countries not included in the survey.
Namestnikova also found similarities between certain spam producing countries.
"The correlation between Indonesia, Ukraine, Thailand, and Peru is still in effect, despite the fact that the percentage of spam originating from Indonesia has increased over the past month, and the percentage of spam coming from the other three in this group has decreased," said Namestnikova. "Nevertheless, the local highs and lows among these four countries are still aligned with one another."
She added that spam flow from Vietnam (#11) and Russia (#12) featured "some similarities."
Despite Latin American and Asian countries supplanting the west as leading spammers, Namestnikova said overall spam mail traffic was down in August - albeit by less than 1 percent. (via Threat Post)
