According to the latest report from Sophos, a recognized leader in IT Security and research, the volume of Spam in the first quarter of 2007 rose four percent. As is the trend in earlier reports, the United States was leading the way with relay traffic sending close to twenty percent of all Spam in the first part of 2007.
China, with seven and a half percent, appears to have gotten quiet while Poland appears to have stepped up efforts and moved in to the top three. This time last year, Poland was responsible for just three percent of Spam traffic. The sudden jump in Spam volume sees Poland coming in at third just after China on the charts with seven percent.
"The US stands out like a sore thumb in this dirty dozen," said Carole Theriault, senior security consultant at Sophos. "China, who until recently was an intimate rival to the US, dropped dramatically during the last quarter. Poland, on the other hand, has now gate-crashed the top three. The fact that its population, and undoubtedly its number of computers, is much lower than the likes of Russia, India, China and the States, suggests that Polish users need to take a close look at the security holes on their computers. Polish authorities would be wise to educate users on safe computing to ensure that they are not responsible for sending out massive gluts of spam."
Other trends in the Sophos report show that ‘Pump-and-Dump’ Spam emails are still moving along nicely and in one company’s case worked. “In March 2007 Sophos identified the first pump-and-dump stock scam preying upon a company listed outside the USA, emphasizing just how successful the technique is proving for cyber criminals worldwide. Emails encouraging investment in Stonebridge Resources Exploration Ltd, which was first listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on 1 March, 2007, circulated for several days. This caused the stock price to inflate substantially, before crashing back down as the spammers sold their shares,” Sophos said.
While Spam is not likely to disappear any time soon, it is interesting to see China reported often as the leader in crime and Spam started dropping in the first part of the year. The alarming pattern is in Poland, according to Sophos, a serious need for ISPs and network administrators in Poland to look-in to their systems and security. China is still in the top three, which shows there is a strong pattern of threats, mostly from data collected, and reported China likes targeted attacks. Mostly to games, such as Lineage, are favorite targets.
The US still shows pure criminal patterns, with fraud, and financial theft being the top two.
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