Security company Sophos has just published a report concerning the spam stats during the first quarter of 2008, revealing that the United States are again responsible for the most unsolicited messages sent on the web. According to figures provided by Sophos, US-based spammers, no matter if we're talking about compromised computer or straight by spammers, sent 15.4 percent of the total amount of spam while Russia comes in second with 7.4 percent.

This quarter brings a new entry as Turkey, a country which was somehow a less important presence in the top, came in third with no less than 5.9 percent of the total spam.

"Turkey's appearance in the top three makes for an interesting realignment so early on in the year, but does not mean that other countries can give up the fight - spam is a global problem and must be tackled as such," said Carole Theriault, senior security consultant at Sophos. "The US continues to relay far more spam than any other country, but the gap is closing, suggesting that users may be receiving more education on safe computing and becoming more security savvy than before."

Talking about the continents from which spam messages are sent, Asia leads the top with 34.3 percent of the total amount of spam reaching our accounts. The second place was "won" by Europe with 30.7 percent while North America comes in third with 18.9. Although Asia is leading continent when it comes to spam, China, including Hong Kong, is only the fourth country in the spam-relaying countries chart with 5.5 percent.

"As long as spammers continue to make money from these nasty ruses, the spam plague will continue. Businesses must wise-up to this threat and recognise the importance of quarantining spam messages before they are delivered to the unsuspecting user. If the right security measures are put in place, businesses can not only save time and money, but can also protect their users from wider, malicious web-based threats, which commonly originate as spam emails with links to infected sites," the Sophos expert noted.

Spam has always been a problem and it seems like it will exist a little bit more since spammers manage to develop more and more advance techniques for sending unsolicited messages. Just read the last days' reports to find out that Microsoft's Live Hotmail CAPTCHA can be hacked in 6 seconds while other spammers attempt to hire human workforce to break them.