Most e-mails in Asia-Pacific is spam

Spam made up 50% of all monitored e-mail traffic targeting the Asia-Pacific region in the latter half of last year.

Spam made up 50 per cent of all monitored e-mail traffic targeting the Asia-Pacific region in the latter half of last year, a report on Internet security threats said Monday.

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The quantum showed a decrease from the first six months of 2005 when 61 per cent of e-mail was classified as spam, according to the report by Symantec, the largest security software company.

The statistics, however, do not necessarily signify a decrease in the unsolicited e-mail attack reports.

"As was the case during the first six months of 2005, this decline is likely due to the fact that network and security administrators are using Internet protocol filtering and traffic shaping to control spam," the report published in The Business Times stated.

Fifty-six percent of all spam received worldwide originated in the US, Symantec added. China was the second highest country of origin with 12 per cent, followed by South Korea with 9 per cent and Canada at 7 per cent.