Insecurity outfit Sophos has published the latest 'Dirty Dozen' of spam relaying countries, covering the first quarter of 2012. It looks like India has overtaken the United States to become the top global contributor of junk messages, responsible for relaying one in ten spam emails.

Most spam comes from home computers that have been compromised by hackers. India’s rise to the top spot comes as the number of new internet users in the country is growing very rapidly, suggesting that computers in the country are not properly protected and that ISPs are not taking spam as seriously as they should.

Last year the UK resided in sixth place in the table, contributing 3.2 per cent of global spam.  Since then, it has fallen off the Dirty Dozen entirely and, in terms of sheer numbers, UK spam has decreased by 47 per cent. Throughput of global email spam messages has decreased since Q1 2011, partly because of better work by ISPs around the world, but also reflecting a change in tactics by cybercriminals.  Spammers are increasingly finding traditional email spam ineffective, turning to social networks to spread these kinds of marketing spam campaigns instead, Sophos said.

While basic marketing spam decreases, the amount of messages that spread malware or that represent more targeted attempts to phish usernames, passwords and personal information is increasing.

The top 12 spam-relaying countries for January to March 2012 are as follows:

1.      India           9.3per cent
2.      USA             8.3 per cent
3.      South Korea     5.7 per cent
4.      Indonesia       5.0 per cent
4.      Russia          5.0 per cent
6.      Italy           4.9 per cent
7.      Brazil          4.3 per cent
8.      Poland          3.9 per cent
9.      Pakistan        3.3 per cent
10.    Vietnam         3.2 per cent
11.    Taiwan          2.9 per cent
12.    Peru            2.5 per cent

         Other           41.7 per cent