Korea fifth largest junk email producer

By Park Si-soo

Staff reporter

South Korea ranked fifth on the list of nations producing junk emails in the second quarter of the year, information technology security firm Sophos said Friday.

The world's most wired country accounted for 4.2 percent of the world's spam during the three-month period, the fifth largest in the world. But the firm didn't reveal the exact number of spam mails produced by Koreans.

The United States remained the world's single biggest generator of junk emails, accounting for 15.2 percent of total spam sent, up from 13.1 percent in the previous three months.

India came in second at 7.7 percent, followed by Brazil (5.5 percent) and Britain (4.6 percent). Ranking after Korea, about 4.1 percent of global spam emails originated from France, followed by Germany (4 percent), Italy (3.5 percent) and Russia (2.8 percent).

"Britain saw a significant rise in the proportion of spam it relayed. With a total output of 4.6 percent of the world's spam, this puts the country in fourth place, up sharply from ninth earlier this year," the U.K.-based firm said.

In terms of continents, Europe has overtaken Asia as the biggest source of email spam worldwide with Britain a major culprit, Sophos said.

Europe produced over a third of the international total junk emails in the second quarter of 2010, slightly more than Asia.

A steady increase in spam generation from France, Italy and Poland were also contributing factors to Europe's rise, it said. Asian countries' rankings in the list generally fell, with both Vietnam and China dropping by five notches to 10th and 12th, respectively.

한국, 정크메일 생산국 5위

2분기에 한국이 정크메일 생산국 5위를 차지했다고 정보기술보안 회사 소포스가 금요일 밝혔다.

전세계 스팸중 4.2 %를 이번 석달에 만들었지만 소포스는 한국인이 만들어낸 스팸메일의 정확한 숫자는 발표하지 않았다.

미국이 15.2%로 제일 많은 정크메일을 만들어 내는 나라가 되었으며 인도가 7.7%로 2위, 브라질이 5.5%, 영국 4.6%에 이어 한국이 5위를 기록했다.

이 영국 회사는 "영국이 스팸생산의 급증을 보이고 있다. 금년 초 9위에서 현재 4위로 껑충 뛰어올랐다" 고 말했다.

대륙 별로는 유럽이 아시아를 뛰어넘었다. 영국이 가장 많이 생산하면서 2분기 유럽에서 전세계의 스팸 1/3을 생산했다.

프랑스, 이탈리아와 폴란드의 스팸 증가량도 이번 유럽이 아시아를 제치는데 기여했다.