Sophos has published its “Dirty Dozen” spam report for the first quarter of 2014. The United States leads the “countries by volume” category and Belarus the “countries by population” category.
In the first category, the US accounts for 16% of all spam. The country is followed by Spain, Russia, Italy, China, Germany, Japan, France, Argentina, South Korea, Ukraine, and India.
In the second category, Belarus is followed by Uruguay, Israel, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Taiwan, Spain, Bahamas, Macau, Romania, Macedonia, and Argentina.
It’s worth noting that Bulgaria, Spain, Macau, Romania, and Argentina are new entries in the “by population” category.
In the “by volume” category, the fact that Spain occupies the second position is surprising, experts say. The fact that Israel is ranked third is also surprising. In the per capita table, Israel held the 12th and 7th spot, respectively, in the previous quarters.
Belarus topping the “Spam-Relaying ‘Dirty Dozen’ Countries by Population” chart is not surprising. Experts noted that the country was becoming a hotspot for spammers several months ago.It’s worth noting that these are spam-relaying countries. This means that the spam is not necessarily sent out by individuals or organizations located in these countries. Instead, it means that computers in these locations are abused for spam. For additional details, check out Sophos’ report.