RP Lags Behind India, China As Top Spam Sources For 2008

Good news or bad news?

As usual, the Philippines is at the tail end of a comparison study among Asian countries. This time, the country lagged behind India, China, Thailand and Korea in terms of its contribution to global spamming.

To spam is to send unsolicited email messages to people. In most cases, spamming involves the sending of the same messages to as many email addresses as possible, usually in the form of advertising quick-get-rich schemes, erectile dysfunction drugs like Viagra and the likes.

According to Trend Micro, an Internet content security provider, Asia accounts for 16.57% of the total spam volume while 57.4% is contributed by the Top 10 spam relaying countries. Sophos, another firm specializing in Internet content security, has listed down to the world's top spam sources from July to September 2008 to include the United States which topped the list for relaying 18.9% of global spam, Russia (8.3%), Turkey (8.2%), China including HongKong (5.4%), Brazil (4.5%), South Korea (3.8%), India (3.5%), Argentina (2.9%), Italy (2.8%) and the United Kingdom (2.7%).

As per Trend Micro's data, India is the top spam source in Asia accounting for over 4% of the total worldwide spam. This was followed by China, Republic of Korea and Thailand. While Sophos and Micro Trend had different data on the percentage of spam contribution by the Asian countries, the two were nevertheless consistent in listing the four countries as the top spam sources albeit in different ranking. The Philippines has not been cited at all among the top spam sources in the region.

This can be positive for the Philippines by saying it is a safe place for Internet owls. However, is anyone safe from the reach of the Internet?

Price Of Onion Up Due To lack Of Supply From India

The price of onion, known locally as sibuyas, continues to rise even after the holidays. Traders blame the steep prices of onions to the lack of supply from India. India, one of the main exporter of onions to the world market, is experiencing heavy floods thus explaining the dwindling supply from them.

Onion used to cost P40 to P50 only last September, 2007 but increased to P100 per kilo during the Christmas season. The present market price of onion in Davao City is however between P150 to P250 depending on which market you are buying your supply from. Traders at the Mintal market are selling their onions at P2oo to P250 per kilo while those at the Bagsakan near Bankerohan market are selling onions at a cheaper (but still high) price of P140 to P180 per kilo.

Even Malaysia is complaining about the high prices of onion prompting Datuk Patrick Sindu, president of the Consumer Association of Sabah and Labuan to call for the investigation of the 100% increase in the price of onions. Onion is a controlled item in the area. Traders however cited the dwindling supply of onion from India as the culprit.