Half the world’s spam comes from Asia

GlobalPost

The various worms, bots and genital enhancement offers knocking on your e-mail inbox were probably fired off from Asia.

So says a Singaporean firm called Sophos that, naturally, sells anti-spam software.

The firm's report claims that half of the world's spam comes from Asian computers. That's a big jump over last year's third quarter, when Asian computers were only cranking out 30 percent of all spam.

It turns out South Korea, one of Asia's most net savvy and plugged-in nations, is really punching above its weight. The nation of 50 million is pumping out nearly 10 percent of the world's spam.

Massive countries India (8.8 percent) and Russia (7.9 percent) follow close behind.

Relative newcomers to what Sophos calls the "dirty dozen" — the world's top 12 spammers — are Vietnam, Indonesia and Pakistan.

The world's spammiest nation? That would be the U.S., a nation Sophos says is rife with unprotected PCs.

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