Linux systems rank high on spam sender list

Linux systems are five times more likely than Windows machines to be used to send spam, according to a Symantec report that highlights the part that Linux plays in the growing spam problem.

The findings were published in Symantec's MessageLabs Intelligence Report for April, published on Friday. The company used a technique called 'passive fingerprinting' to identify the operating system of a spam-sending machine, then calculated the ratio of spam from a given operating system compared with its market share.

Linux systems originated 5.14 percent of spam, compared with 92.65 percent for Microsoft Windows systems. But Linux only has 1.03 percent of the operating system market share, as opposed to 91.58 percent for Windows, according to Symantec. (For the market share figures, Symantec used research from Net Applications.) The resulting calculation gave Linux a "spam index" of 4.99, compared with an index of 1.01 for Windows.

For more on this story, read Linux systems rank high on spam sender list on ZDNet UK.