We're #1 (In Spam)

A recent study indicates that over 35% of spam globally is sourced from the United States. South Korea is a fairly close second. They're apparently responsible for around 25% of all junk email.

The research conducted by the spam control firm Sophos also pinned the spam problem on zombie computers. Zombies are computers that have been hijacked by malware in order to send junk messages or other illegal activities. Zombies now account for around 50% of all spam.

While not all spam is against the law, all spam messages sent by zombies presumably are. Spamming is often legal, but hacking someone's computer to do so is theft of services. Zombies are often chosen by spammers as they help them circumvent many efforts to block spam mail.

Sophos compiled the data using its network of "honey pots." Honey pots are lists of email addresses placed online in order to fool spammers into emailing them. Since the email addresses have no other use, it can safely be determined that all messages sent to them are unwanted mail.

This research methodology is potentially somewhat flawed. While many spam lists are composed by scraping the web for addresses, not all are. The data is still certainly interesting, if not statistically infallible.

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