India World Number Two In Spam

India might be far behind when it comes to the total number of Internet users or even the availability of broadband connectivity. But there is one thing that India excels at, apparently. Spam. That's right- India has earned the dubious distinction of being the second largest spam emanating source in the world. Placed just behind U.S., India accounts for a staggering 7.7 percent of the global spam.

These facts were revealed in a study conducted by security analysis firm Sophos. Sophos has released its annual list of the world's top spam polluters. As mentioned earlier, U.S. heads this list with it accounting for over 15.2 percent of the global spam. India is at second position followed by Brazil and UK. The surprise inclusion in the top 5 happens to be the UK which was at the 9th spot last year. The world number 5 when it comes to spam is South Korea.

 

According to Graham Cluely, a senior technology consultant at Sophos, spam is becoming increasingly malicious. According to him, financially-motivated criminals are controlling compromised zombie computers to not just launch spam campaigns, but also to steal identity and bank account information. He adds that it's an uphill struggle educating users about the dangers of clicking on links or attachments in spam mails, and that their computers may already be under the control of cybercriminals.

To make things gloomier, it is thought that Spam will continue to be a global problem for as long as it makes money for the spammers. Even as you read this, many computer users remain unaware of the fact that their computer has been recruited into a spam botnet.