India is largest spam-sender in Asia

BANGALORE: India is the largest spam sender in Asia and ranks seventh in the world, says a survey by Trend Micro Inc, a global leader in internet content security. India accounts for 4.26% of the total volume of spam in the world. Globally, the volume is a whopping 6.65 crore. Heading the world list is the Russian Federation, accounting for more than 11% of total spam, followed by the USA at 9.36%.

The world’s top 10 spam relaying countries account for about 57.4% of the global spam volumes. The BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) churn out 20% of all spam. Asia contributes 16.57%. India is ahead of China (3.39%), Republic of Korea (2.57%) and Thailand (2.04%).

Trend Micro experts say spam from emerging markets will continue to grow till proper internet infrastructure is in place. Niraj Kaushik, country manager (India & SAARC), Trend Micro, says, “The rapid growth of broadband connections and use of virus distribution by spam have created large collections of ‘zombie’ machines on broadband networks sitting ready to serve the needs of the spammer (creating large volumes of spam mail from previously unknown systems).”

He explains that most spam today is an advertisement of ‘get-rich-quick’ schemes and dubious products. “From being a small irritant that most enterprises earlier ignored, spam has today taken the shape of a huge calamity,” says Kaushik. “Enterprises not having a policy to curb spam will eventually see their profitability and productivity hit.”