Europe is now 'Spam Central'

Added by The Editor, 9 months ago.

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More unsolicited emails, or ‘spam', originated in Europe than in the United States in January 2008, according to security software provider Symantec's Monthly Spam Report.

According to the findings, in January 44% of spam email originated in Europe, compared to 35.1% in the US.

That marks a major shift from previous findings - it's the first time that Europe has surpassed the US as a source of spam since Symantec began releasing monthly data in August 2007. Then, only 30.6% of spam came from Europe, compared to 46% from the US.

It should be noted that spammers typically try to disguise their actual location, so Europe may just be a convenient passing point for rogue emails. However, Symantec's spam experts also noted that a big spam jump in Europe has corresponded with broadband access across the population.

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Mandy, 9 months ago

I'd be interested to understand what is meant by spam coming from a particular country. Don't forget that there are three types of entity involved: the more or less criminal, stupid and/or misguided entity that is trying to sell its services or to defraud people; the intelligent and criminal entity that undertakes to send out spam on behalf of the first entity, and which uses completely dodgy techniques to do it; and the entity that actually transmits the spam, probably without knowing anything about it through its accidental membership of a botnet managed by the second entity. (It's almost certainly only the second of these that makes any money out of the enterprise.) It's hardly surprising that you are more likely to belong to a botnet if you have broadband and are therefore continuously online. The EU theoretically has stronger anti-spam laws than the US does; both serve a purpose, in helping create a climate where spam is unacceptable to the man on the Clapham omnibus; but in the end, as I've commented elsewhere on this site, we may as well just put robust anti-spam measures in place and treat it as noise. There are plenty of people out there researching spam and botnets and putting measures in place to combat them. I take Chris' point; a serious criminal can take advantage of botnet technology; but it's jolly difficult to tie them down to a particular country, because the actual spam transports that they control may be distributed round the world.

chris gabriel, 9 months ago

SPAM is going to come from any country where the laws are weak not to SPAM but to the activity of fraud and deception, and Eastern Europe has transformed over the last 15 years not without the challenge of good and robust legal reform. It is not law against spammers that stops spammers but law against the activity that SPAM proceeds thats importance. What caused SPAM in the US to slow - 911 and laws against terrorism and activity that could either lead or fund terrorism. 10 years in a cell 3ft by 3ft in 100 degree heat somewhere in Cuba probably is deterrent enough for the most hardened of spammers.

Thomas Hird, 9 months ago

Russia and Eastern Europe immediately spring to mind - is that unfair? Or is it just that regulation and policing has become stricter in the US I wonder?

Archie Dean, 9 months ago

Do you know if the report pinpointed specific countries where spam is originating from? It would be interesting to see if there's much difference between east and west Europe in this regard. Or perhaps as Jeremy suggests, it might reveal which countries have tougher security measures against spam.

Jeremy Taylor, 9 months ago

Have US companies or lawmakers changed the way they protect or police spam? That would perhaps explain why more spam is now originating in Europe instead. I know spam is more of a nuisance than a security threat like phishing or hacking, but it still overburdens email servers and is a source of constant irritation for the IT department.