Every quarter Sophos announces the SPAMPIONSHIP league highlighting the worst offending countries for spam. As we approach Halloween, the Q3 (July-August-September) results for 2014 are in. The Spampionship is a clear reminder that while spam is a global problem, prevention begins at home. That’s because most spam comes from so-called “zombies” – computers infected by malware that puts them under the remote control of cybercrooks who could be on the other side of the world, and probably are.

For example, SophosLabs has clocked a single infected computer sending more than 5,000,000 spams in a single week, illegally promoting an ever-changing cocktail of shady products and services, and pumping out malware in attachments.

And as SophosLabs monitor where spam comes from, they are also simultaneously mapping out where in the world the zombies are. As Cybersecurity Awareness Month draws to a close, it’s time to be part of the solution, and go zombie bashing with Sophos!

Just download and run Sophos’ free Virus Removal Tool to check your computer isn’t infected, and do your bit today!

In this Sophos Naked Security article, Sophos expert Paul Ducklin provides his analysis of the latest Spampionship results.

Highlights of the Q3 2014 Spampionship

Being high on the spam-sending charts, means you’re also high on the scale of people who put their personal information, finances, and even identity at risk.

The Spampionship is the league that everyone wants to lose, and below are the results for Q3 (July, August, September) of 2014.

The “Dirty Dozen” countries 

Measuring spam entirely by volume-per-country is a little unfair, because populous countries like China, or very well-connected, like the USA, inevitably bubble up to the top of the list.

Things get fairer – and more interesting – when each country’s spam volume is divided by its approximate population:

Read the original article, here.