Australia has dropped off the 2006 “dirty dozen” spam list completely. The list, compiled by Sophos, is a snapshot of countries found to be contributing to the worldwide level of spam in the third quarter of 2006.In the quarter, Australia had fallen from number 25 to 32 in a global ranking of countries known for sending spam.The ranking means Australia contributes 0.4 percent to the rate of global spam. The United States was found to contribute 21 percent, topping the list. China, including Hong Kong at 13.4 percent, France at 6.3 percent (a tie with South Korea) and new entry Israel at 1.8 percent rounded out the list.Poland contributed 4.8 percent, Brazil 4.7 percent, Italy 4.3 and Germany 3 percent. The only comparison Australia had globally was Malaysia, which, according to the Sophos ASEAN league table, ranked globally at number 31 with 0.4 percent.Paul Ducklin, Sophos Asia Pacific head of technology, said not too much can be read into the drop in spam relaying in Australia. Ducklin said Australia is down and staying down and in such a table should be glad the country is near the bottom in an increasingly global issue. “Whether Australia is 28th or 23rd doesn’t matter, as what is good is that we have not seen anything even looking like a resurgence in spam-relaying machines. There does not seem to be more computers infected by zombies this year,” Ducklin said.“The big deal is if we had gone back up, and of course one thing driving other countries up the spam list is the more the population is connected online as spam is increasingly becoming a global problem.“If you compare the economies and population of Japan and Australia, and the fact perhaps spam is newer in Japan, we are not doing too badly when you consider the Internet penetration and population size in Australia.”Japan was found to contribute some 1.7 percent to global spam levels, according to the report, ranking it number 12 on the list.By Michael Crawford, Computerworld AustraliaRelated Links: • New Phishing Attack Uses Fake Journalists to Target Bank Workers• The ABCs of Phishing and PharmingKeep checking in at our Security Feed for updated news coverage. Related content feature Key findings from the CISA 2022 Top Routinely Exploited Vulnerabilities report CISA’s recommendations for vendors, developers, and end-users promote a more secure software ecosystem. By Chris Hughes Sep 21, 2023 8 mins Zero Trust Threat and Vulnerability Management Security Practices news Insider risks are getting increasingly costly The cost of cybersecurity threats caused by organization insiders rose over the course of 2023, according to a new report from the Ponemon Institute and DTEX Systems. By Jon Gold Sep 20, 2023 3 mins Budget Data and Information Security news US cyber insurance claims spike amid ransomware, funds transfer fraud, BEC attacks Cyber insurance claims frequency increased by 12% in the first half of 2023 while claims severity increased by 42% with an average loss amount of more than $115,000. By Michael Hill Sep 20, 2023 3 mins Insurance Industry Risk Management news Intel Trust Authority attestation services now in general availability Formerly known as Project Amber, Intel’s attestation services support confidential computing deployments. By Michael Nadeau Sep 20, 2023 3 mins Zero Trust Security Hardware Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe