Spam comes from all over the world

THE GEOGRAPHY of cybercrime has evolved so that spam is coming from just about everywhere in the world, according to the head of content analysis and research at Kaspersky Lab, Darya Gudkova.

Speaking at the RSA Conference in London yesterday morning, Gudkova said that in the first half of 2011 spam "is coming from everywhere".

In 2006, USA, Russia and China were the worst spammers at 50 per cent. However, in 2010, when there was Botnet closure, the amount of spam in the US dropped and "remains very low". In the fourth quarter of 2010, spam grew in Russia and India and fell in the UK, Gudkova said.

Currently, spam from Europe is falling while Asia is rising, said Gudkova, adding that Trojan Spy HTML Fraud is now the most popular spam.

Gudkova said that in the US and Europe, spam consists of adverts for affiliate programmes, medications and fake anti-virus software. In Russia and Eastern Europe, directly ordered spam and small business offers are the most popular forms of spam. In Asia, fraudulent dating sites and training offers are prevalent forms of cyber crime.

Meanwhile, worldwide spam is mostly phishing, 419 scams and 'easy money' come-ons.

Gudkova called for legislation to have a clear definition and easy ways to initiate proceedings. She said that international cooperation is also important as well as computer security and awareness in the region.

The least secure countries are in Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. µ