US biggest producer of spam causing email traffic in Indian PCs

London, Mar 2: Email security company MessageLabs today said the US is the biggest producer of spam which causes upto ninety-one per cent email traffic in Indian PCs.

According to a report released by MessageLabs, India's rapidly growing IT industry has left the country's PC users struggling to cope with very high levels of spam. The biggest producer of spam is the US, the report said.

It has warned that the rate of technological advancement has outstripped growth in security awareness.

''There is booming technology in India, but it has been suggested there is little thought for security, which creates a market to exploit that,'' Paul Wood, security analyst at MessageLabs, said.

The report also said a majority of the junk email still comes from the US, or is generated by American spammers who have moved their operations abroad. Mr Wood said, ''American companies use host services in other countries with laxer spam laws; perhaps a server farm in South America or an ISP in China. Communications between the spammer and the server can be encrypted, so the provider may not know what the server is being used for''.

The MessageLabs Intelligence Report for February also found the United Arab Emirates had the highest rate of viruses transmission, with one virus received per 13.9 emails. ''This could be collateral damage of a large viral outbreak local to the region,'' Mr Wood further added.

UNI