US and China Top List of Spam-Relaying Countries 92
jcatcw writes "On Thursday Sophos released a new set of global statistics pointing out the biggest spam relaying countries in the world. Toping the list between April and June of this year were the US and China. 'Sophos senior security consultant Carole Theriault said that while the U.S. remains the top spam dog, there results show an urgent need for countries to join together and take global action. "Once a machine is compromised, it is often used to send out spam for a variety of campaigns," she said. "In a matter of seconds, we can see compromised systems send messages on a dozen different topics from stock scams to diet drugs." Paul Ducklin, Sophos Asia Pacific head of technology, said that spammers are ready to "borrow" any computer illegally to send e-mail regardless of the location.'"
Europe getting in on the action too (Score:4, Informative)
Europe now has six entries in the Dirty Dozen, which when combined, account for even more spam-relaying than the U.S.
Re:Europe getting in on the action too (Score:3, Informative)
Just like the USA is not America
(but that doesn't change the fact that there are 5 EU countries in that list totaling to 17.9%, less than the USA)
Our efforts seem to be paying off (Score:4, Informative)
The bigger task is getting all the other ISPs in the country to agree to implement this instead of bending over backwards to please their customers and allow them to broadcast whatever their virus-infected PCs can conjure. The major technical players have formed a network-admins group which discusses such topics and so far, the response has been quite positive.
It will likely take a while before these types of policies are enforced in countries which are only just starting to get online.
Re:Since spam relays have shifted from servers.... (Score:4, Informative)
Blocking port 25 outbound is a strategic nuclear strike, where all that is needed is a carpenter's hammer.
However, I wouldn't be opposed to it as long as: