Interesting Blog Post at Sophos

Author: John Zorabedian
Subject: Spam-Bot Invaders: Which countries send the most spam? (Infographic)

Recently we measured spam volume from around the world to find out which countries are the worst spam offenders. As we expected, the United States sends out way more spam than any other country — 24.2% of all spam was from the U.S.

When you consider the country’s huge online population, it’s not surprising that the U.S. sends so much spam. Spam comes from “bots” — computers infected with malware and under the control of a criminal. “Bot masters” can use servers anywhere in the world to give the bots instructions. So spam-bots in the countries on our list aren’t the authors of the spam, they are more like the messengers.

While it’s interesting to call out the 12 “dirty dozen” countries that send the most spam by volume, we also like to look at the amount of spam by population. It’s a diverse list of nations, and even small countries have a big spam problem.

The Dirty Dozen Spampionship

We’ve been measuring spam in our quarterly “Spampionship” going back a few years, and the U.S. consistently tops our charts. As you can see in the graphic below, bots in the U.S. send by far the most spam of any country, with second-place France (responsible for 6.7% of spam) well behind.

Other countries in our top 12 include China (third at 6.2% of spam) and Russia (fifth at 5.1% of spam), both consistently at the top of our charts quarter after quarter.

Spam per person – a fairer measure

We also look at spam “per person.” We do this because we think it’s a fairer measure of how spammy a country is. By setting the U.S. as the baseline, we can see how likely it is that a computer in a given country is a spam-sending bot compared to the U.S.

This past quarter, Bulgaria was the top country for spam per person, coming in at 2.1 times the U.S. Belarus, which had been the tops of the spam per-person chart for the past year, dropped to second place, at 1.9 times the U.S. spam level.

Fight back against spam and cybercrime – kill a spambot

A country’s size has nothing to do with how much spam is coming from within its borders — spam servers can be anywhere in the world.

Remember, if your computer is infected with spam-sending bot malware, you are part of the problem. Do your part to fight back against spam — download our free Virus Removal Tool to scan your computer and automatically clean up malware.

You can learn more about our “Spampionship” series by visiting our award-winning Naked Security blog.

Sophos Email Security

If you’re a business looking to keep your email secure, Sophos blocks spam and email-borne threats. Learn more about email security from Sophos.

Great article today on surge protectors by Geoffrey Morrison - CNET

9 things you should know about surge protectors

by Geoffrey Morrison

Don’t forget to protect your electrical equipment. Depending on the device you may want to consider a UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply) in some cases. UPS’s normally provide both surge and short term power which is good for situations like brown outs. Some of these devices will even power you equipment off automatically if the power is out for a period of time.

Microsoft unleashes 'Settlers of Catan' on the web

I thought this was interesting…

• www.engadget.com
• July 30th, 2014

Microsoft has something of an extracurricular activity: When it's not releasing Office for iPad or updating Windows, it has a habit of helping other companies build websites. Its latest project is a web version ofSettlers of Catan, the popular board game, which it co-developed with Bontom Games. As with previous Microsoft-backed sites, the appeal is that anyone, even Microsoft haters, can use it: The web version will run in any browser that supports HTML5 (in other words, not just IE). That's obviously a different approach from the existing Settlers of Catan apps for Android and iOS, which are of course reserved for people using those platforms.

The game's in beta for now, and Microsoft says more features and improvements are on the way. For now, the game can't set you up with computer opponents, nor will it pair with you some random online player. Instead, you'll have to find at least two other friends, who you can invite through either email or Facebook. (Obviously, since the game runs in any modern browser, it doesn't matter what device your friends are carrying.) Once you get a game going, you take turns asynchronously, with time limits to keep the game going. You can also opt into email notifications, so you'll know when someone's taken a turn. Throughout, you can talk to your opponents using built-in voice chat -- powered by Skype, of course.

Microsoft introduced other features too, including auto-trade and auto-roll -- again, to help keep things moving. Lastly the dice you'd normally use with the physical board game has been replaced with an on-screen button. Ultimately, the company says it plans to announce a complete rule set at GamesCon in August, including development cards, points and achievements, bringing the web game fully in line with the board game version. In the meantime, you can play the beta game here. Enjoy -- and do be patient if you encounter any performance hiccups. It's clear the site isn't fully polished yet.