Spam: How does it affect carbon emissions? (infographic)
Commtouch (Internet Threats Trend Report) published data concerning spam levels in 2010, finding that every day we send about 221 billion email messages, of which 183 billion are classified as spam -- 85 percent of total traffic globally.
United States lead the ranking of the "spamming" countries with 38 billion emails per day being exchanged, followed by India (13.7 billion), Russia (9.8), Vietnam (9.7) and Korea (7.6).
How much does all this junk mail cost the environment in terms of CO2 emissions? The data appears to be from 2010 reports is possibly lower than current levels, as the growth of Internet networks continue. However, in Commtouch's latest report on Q4 of 2011, email attached malware levels dropped significantly from the billions of messages observed in Q3.
These have now been replaced with numerous outbreaks of emails with malicious links. Most of these links led to compromised websites that were used to host malware scripts -- suggesting that 'spammers' are now changing tactics and using more interactive measures to try and steal data from online users.
Interested in knowing how much spam costs your company? There's a handy calculator for that.
Related on SmartPlanet:
- New software spots exaggerated product reviews
- Phishing attacks: will we ever stop them?
- ZDNet: Why do we still fall for phishing scams?
- How email spammers really make their money
- Google in search of solution for 'web spam' problem
This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com