14 DAY TRIAL // Symantec's Hosted Services, MessageLabs, reports that 90% of the daily spam output in the first half of 2010, consisting of 120 billion junk emails, is sent by five to six million compromised computers which are organized into botnets. The most spammed business sectors are engineering, automotive and accomodation/catering.
MessageLabs, Symantec's business Email and messaging security arm, has also compiled regional spam reports for several countries like the United States, Canada, United Kindgom, Germany, Australia and Denmark. The company concludes that areas with a greater number of SMBs are more likely to receive spam.
MessageLabs' report for the United States revealed that so far in 2010 the top spammed states are Idaho, where 95.2% of email is spam, Alabama with a ratio of 94.4% and South Carolina with 93.6. Indiana (92.7%), Tennessee (92.1%), Illinois (91.8%), Utah (91.6%), Washington (91.3%), New Hampshire (91.3%) and North Carolina (91.3%) complete the top ten most spammiest states. The country's average spam ratio was 89.3% and Puerto Rico, Montana and Louisiana were the least spammed regions.
In the UK, spam hotspots were recorded in Warwickshire (93.7%), Merseyside (92.2%), Herefordshire (91.9%), Antrim (91.6%), Ayrshire (89.9%), Bedfordshire (89.7%), Surrey (89.6%), North Yorkshire (89.1%), Highland (88.9%) and Angus (88.7%). At the opposite end were Ipswich and Worcestershire, which registered the least spam. Coventry came out as the most spammed city.
In Canada, New Brunswick leads the top of the most spammed provinces with a spam rate of 92.5%. All other provinces had spam ratios under the global average of 89.3%. Therefore, British Columbia registered 89%, Saskatchewan 88.7%, Alberta 87.6%, Ontario 87.5%, Manitoba 87%, Nova Scotia 87%, Quebec 87%, while Newfoundland & Labrador scored 86%.
The Australian Capital Territory was the most spammed region in Australia with a 91.4% spam ratio. New South Wales came in second with 88.4% and was followed by Queensland (89.1%), Victoria (88.5%), Tasmania (88.3%), the Northern Territory (87%), Western Australia (86.9%) and South Australia (86.8%).
In Germany the spam capital was Hamburg, with a rate of 95.7%. The rest of top ten spammed cities is filled by Berlin (94.3%), Kempten (94.2%), Lingen (93.6%), Karlsruhe (93.0%), Bottrop (92.3%), Neumarkt (92.3%), Stuttgart (92.2%), Bochum (92.0%) and Düsseldorf (92.0%).
In Danemark, the national spam rate was very high and reached 92.1%. The most spammed town, with a whooping ratio of 98.6% was Herlev. Søborg (94.3%), Ikast (93.5%), Vinderup (93.3%), Herning (93.2%), Koge (92.6%), Smørum (92.5%), Hedehusene (92.4%), Haderslev (91.4%) and Sønderbord (91.3%), followed.
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