Technology security company Symantec says Hong Kong received the highest level of spam of any region or country in the world as the company published its latest report.

The May 2009 MessageLabs Intelligence Report highlights that spam experienced a further worldwide increase of 5.1% since last month, reaching heights of 90.4%. Email spam levels in Hong Kong rose by 2.4% in May to 92.3%, positioning it as the most spammed region. Symantec's report also shows that virus levels in all of China accounted for 1 in 198.3.

"As spam levels continue to increase, we are seeing existing attack techniques combine and morph into one," said Paul Wood from Symantec. "In 2008, CAPTCHA-breaking, social networking spam and the use of webmail for spamming all became popular tactics. Today, the bad guys are using the three together as a triple threat to heighten the effectiveness of their spamming."

Globally, spam levels in Britain were 90.3% and spam levels in the United States were 86.6%.