Asia accounted for just over half of the world's spam in Q3, with several Asian countries’ contributions swelling over the past year.
According to security firm Sophos, Asia accounted for 50.1% of global spam during the quarter, more than twice that of second-placed Europe (21.4%) and three times more than North America (14.2%).
Asia's contribution has increased from just 30% at the same time last year, while Europe’s contribution has meanwhile dropped more than 10% over the same period.
Although the USA remains the single worst offender country-wise, accounting for 11.3% of global spam, Asian nations South Korea and India took second and third spots in the country rankings, accounting for 9.6% and 8.8% of global spam respectively.
Several Asian nations such as Indonesia, Pakistan, Taiwan and Vietnam also joined the list of top 12 spam-emitting countries in the past year, taking the place of several European nations.
Senior technology consultant at Sophos Graham Cluley said the latest figures suggest that users achieving connectivity for the first time are likely not taking appropriate security measures. The lack of initiative likely led to the formation of vast and still-growing botnets, responsible for spam distribution, across Asia.
Chief security officer at Akamai Andy Ellis toldTelecom Asia that countries making a sudden leap to broadband Internet access are most at risk of falling victim to botnets as the abundance of connectivity often overshadowed the need for security.
Sophos’s findings about Asia are somewhat in line with results from Akamai’s recently published report on the state of Internet security. Akamai’s report named Taiwan the top originator of overall attack traffic for Q3, with Myanmar taking top spot in the previous quarter.