China took third place on Sophos' list of the top twelve spam producing countries, behind only the United States and South Korea.
Sophos researchers scanned all spam messages received at its global network of honeypots in the last month and at the top of the list was the United States, which is responsible for exporting 42.53% of all spam. South Korea was responsible for 15.42%, while China exports 11.62%.
"When we released the first report back in February, the US had the excuse that the CAN-SPAM act had been in existence for only three months," said Chris Kraft, senior security analyst at Sophos, Inc. "Six months and millions of spam messages later, it is quite evident that that the CAN-SPAM legislation has made very little headway in damming the flood of spam. If nine months isn't long enough to make a significant difference, how long is?"
Sophos notes that the most broadband-connected country in the world, South Korea, has consolidated its position as a leading producer of spam — almost tripling the percentage of spam originating from its shores since February. However, previous silver medal winner Canada has managed to significantly decrease their contribution to the world's overall junk email by more than half — from 6.8% six months ago to 2.9% today.