Who's responsible for those unwanted messages flooding our inboxes? According to a recent report, there has been a considerable shift in where spam originates from; European spam networks are now said to be pumping out more unsolicited messages than those in the U.S.

On a global level, a major contributor to rising spam levels is botnets - networks of compromised computers that are used, among other illicit purposes, to propagate spam.

The Storm botnet (made up of machines infected through the so-called Storm Worm), in particular, is said to be one of the largest known botnets. In the February issue of Lavasoft News, we brought you an in-depth look at Storm Worm. Get the news on this badly behaved threat.