The Russian Federation is now a "superpower' of spam email. According to the multinational computer security firm Sophos, Russia is the second-most-prolific country after the us in producing junk emails. "One in 12 junk mails generated worldwide originates in Russia,' the firm's quarterly update on spam email noted.

The us remains the spam leader, accounting for 20 per cent of these emails, which contain unsolicited marketing pitches and sometimes viruses or other malicious software. China, Brazil, South Korea, Turkey, Italy, Poland, Germany, Spain, Mexico and Britain were the other countries that made up the dirty dozen spammers. "Countries that continually remain among the top spam-relayers need to ensure that they are doing more to properly defend computer systems,' said Mike Haro, senior security analyst at Sophos.