Canning the rising cost of spam

Home > Business > Industry

print dictionary print

Canning the rising cost of spam

After a one-week business trip to the United States, what awaited Choi Young-seok, 34, when he returned to his office in Korea were 1,200 spam e-mails, causing serious disruption to his work. Deleting unsolicited e-mail had been part of his daily routine whenever he turned on his computer at work. But this time, his weeklong absence stockpiled a massive amount of spam e-mails that led to technical problems. Mr Choi’s mailing account stopped receiving e-mails and error messages kept popping up. For over an hour he deleted messages, but it was a futile effort. He reported the problem to a technician. The huge volume of e-mails had exceeded the capacity of Mr. Choi’s e-mail account. But what annoyed him most was that over 90 percent of the spam e-mails he received were obscene. Mr.Choi receives an average 200 spam e-mails a day. They claim a considerable amount of time to read and delete. Moreover, most of them are so lewd that he is reluctant to check his e-mail account when his wife or children are around his computer. Recently, pop-up screens promoting products or obscene porn web sites have taken over his terminal while he is searching the Internet or playing on-line games. Last year, there were 90,786 reports filed against unsolicited spam e-mails and 15,290 consultations regarding obscene and harmful materials, according to the Korea Information Security Agency. The total amounted to over 106,000 cases ― 36 times larger than the 2,923 cases reported in 2001, and 326 times larger than the 325 cases reported in 2000. As of late April this year, the agency has received 47,000 cases. The Ministry of Information and Communication reported that Korean Internet users received an average 50 spam e-mails a day as of March this year, which was more than 10 times the average 4.7 spam e-mails they received in 2001. The figure for last year was 34.8. Among spam e-mails, blunt obscene mails accounted for 63 percent as of March, causing concerns about harmful effects to children. The percentage has grown sharply from 18.5 percent in 2001, through 61 percent for last year. International Data Corporation Korea, a tech research firm, said the volume of spam e-mails distributed around the world each day averaged 5.6 billion last year, and 7.3 billion so far this year. The Ministry of Information and Communication assumes an average 900 million spam e-mails a day flow around Korea. The attack of junk e-mails is incurring enormous economic damage. Nara Research Co., an on-line research firm, calculated last year’s financial losses from excessive spam e-mails as 1.46 trillion won ($1.2 billion) in storage costs alone. The time required to delete unsolicited e-mails averaged 44 hours per person, equivalent to 1.18 trillion won in lost working hours. “Last year’s loss was based on the daily average of 45 spam e-mails, so the loss this year is expected to increase more in line with the growth in spam e-mails each day,” said Han Yi-sik, chief executive of Nara Research. “Given the costs of developing spam-blocking software and psychological damage from the attack of junk e-mails, social losses are uncountable.” Korea is not alone in suffering from the flood of spam e-mails. The state of California, in the United States, passed a bill on May 22 allowing for fines of $500 for individuals or groups caught sending junk e-mails. The bill was highlighted because it adopted an “opt-in” system, whereby advertisers could only send e-mails legally to account holders if they specifically requested them. Korea relies on an “opt-out” system, whereby anyone can legally send unsolicited advertising or other e-mails to account holders until they specifically request they stop. The Korean government is set to counter spam e-mails in response to the increasing economic and social damage caused by them. The Ministry of Information and Communication has already formed a “joint management committee” against spam e-mails composed of related ministries, such as the Office of Premier and the Public Prosecutor’s Office, civic groups, including the Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice, and Internet firms, such as Daum Communications Corp. and NHN Corp. “There is a limit to countermeasures run solely by the government due to the attributes of the Internet, so the government formed a joint committee to eradicate harmful e-mails in a broad spectrum,” said Kim Ki-kwon, a ministry official and executive secretary of the spam e-mail management committee. “The government has tried to resolve the issue by revising related laws. Spam e-mailers who send e-mails including harmful materials to children will be fined up to 10 million won or sentenced to a maximum of two-year’s imprisonment. “But the tough measures have not been effective, so the newly born joint management committee will make every single effort to protect our youth from unlawful obscene e-mails.” by Yum Tae-jeong
Log in to Twitter or Facebook account to connect
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
help-image Social comment?
s
lock icon

To write comments, please log in to one of the accounts.

Standards Board Policy (0/250자)