Spam: The US, the Most Prolific Country, Asia, the Most Prolific Continent

Although US software companies are among the fiercest anti-spam militants, the US is still the heaviest spam sender.

This is the conclusion of Sophos' "Dirty Dozen" report for the first quarter of 2006, which shows the leading spam-sending countries.

The first place was 'disputed' between the United States and China, the difference in percentages being extremely small, 1.2. Therefore, the US is responsible for 23.1 percent of the spam messages, while China sent 21.9%.

Despite the leading position of the United States, when it comes to continents, Asia is the leader of the pack, followed by North American and Europe.

However, the home of the brave has recorded a decrease in spam compared to the previous years, this due to the protective measures and the legal actions against spammers.

"Although we're seeing a worldwide increase in zombies, hijacked PCs infected by malware, Americans have vigilantly increased protection on their computers from malicious hackers resulting in a significant decrease in spam coming from the United States," said Ron O'Brien, senior security analyst at Lynnfield, MA-based Sophos.

Here's the spam top for the first quarter of 2006:

1. United States 23.1%
2. China (inc. Hong Kong) 21.9%
3. S Korea 9.8%
4. France 4.3%
5. Poland 3.8%
6. Spain 3.3%
7. Germany 3.0%
8. Brazil 2.9%
9. Japan 2.0%
10. United Kingdom 1.9%
11. Netherlands 1.8%
12. Taiwan 1.6%

Others 20.6%