The quarterly report Dirty Dozen (dirty dozen) from the security company Sophos lists the top twelve spam countries for the first quarter of 2012. For the first time, the United States does not top the list, and has been overtaken by India , which emits 9.3 percent of spam . In fact, the Asian continent is responsible for 46.7 percent of spam emissions.
"The main driver driving Asia's dominance in spam lists is the sheer number of infected computers on this continent," explains Graham Cluley, technology consultant at Sophos. " Hackers hijack poorly protected computers to take control and, without their owners being aware, use them to earn money through malicious messages and links."
Spain, for its part, continues outside the list of main emitting countries and occupies the position number 17 , being responsible for 1.66 percent of the spam emitted in the world. The European countries from which the most spam is sent are Italy, which is ranked number 6 on the list, and Poland, which is ranked eighth.
Globally, spamming has decreased compared to 2011, due in part to a change in tactics by cybercriminals, who are beginning to find spam associated with email ineffective. Social media is now, however, the main medium through which spam marketing campaigns are spread.
