Data collected by the Atlas VPN team, a cybersecurity firm, have shown that 54 percent of spam emails created in the last six months came from the United States and Russia.

Spammers in the U.S. accounted for 44 percent of emails globally while Russia contributed 10 percent.

In the past two weeks, Atlas VPN noted around 24,265 spam emails sent worldwide, with harmful emails, phishing attacks, blackmail making up 33, 23, 7 and 2 percent respectively.

Rachel Welch, COO of Atlas VPN, recommended creating complex email addresses, avoiding using main email addresses to sign up for online services, and refraining from opening suspicious click on any link or attachment provided in spam messages as those emails may contain malware that can infect your device and compromise user data.

On Tuesday, the data firm had reported that 2020 saw 37 billion data record leaks globally. The report revealed the most commonly exposed category of data, as well as the sectors that faced the most hacks and exposure.

The healthcare industry came first with the most hacks at 484, 12 percent of all last year’s breaches, followed by information sector came after with 429 hacks, a 11 percent of data breaches last year and lastly, the finance and insurance sector with 382 hacks, 10 percent of 2020’s data breaches.