Computers in Japan are much less likely than those in other nations to
harbour spam-spreading viruses and Trojans, according to
vnunet.com's analysis of
recent data on unsolicited email sources.
However, the reasons for this remain unclear. Recent data shows that the
amount
of spam coming from a country appears closely related to the number of
broadband internet connections in that country.
For example, the US has 21 per cent of the world's broadband lines, and
accounts for 24 per cent of the spam relayed worldwide, while China is home to
just under a fifth of broadband connections, and emits about a fifth of all of
spam.
Japan, however, clearly bucks the trend. While the country has more than 11
per cent of the world's broadband connections, it is producing only two per cent
of global spam. This is despite the fact that 100Mbps fibre internet
connections, which are especially attractive to spammers, are common in Japan.
The most likely reason for the correlation between broadband connections and
spam output is the tendency for PCs on broadband lines to be taken over by
malware and turned into so-called 'zombies', generating or relaying large
quantities of spam.
Zombie PCs are believed to produce over 60 per cent of spam, according to
security software firm
Sophos, which gathered
the
data on the geographic origins of spam from its global network of spam
detectors.
Anecdotal evidence supports Japan's surprisingly low ranking in the spam
charts, according to the Japanese subsidiary of Sophos, which develops software
to combat virus infections, spam and malware.
"Despite our customer base in Japan expanding very significantly since we
established the subsidiary in 2000, the number of calls to our support
department regarding infections in general has fallen," said Alan Broderick,
director of the company's Japanese office.
"If the proportion of machines in Japan which are infected at any one time is
lower than in other countries it would certainly have a positive effect on the
relay figures."
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