Obscene Spam-mails from Korea Put the Nation to Shame

“Obscene spam-mails from Korea are blanket-bombing my e-mail account every day. How could this happen? Please make this stop. Please.”

As spams from Korea are recklessly attacking the cyber space all around the world, reports of complaint are sharply increasing from at home and abroad.

According to the Korea Information Security Agency (KISA) on Feb. 13, the reports and consultation on the illegal spam-mails last year amounted to 106,076 cases. Among them, the number of cases from overseas reached 61,681.

The reason the reported damage by spam-mails is spreading at home and abroad is that the automatic selection program of e-mail addresses used by the senders has been recklessly collecting and using the addresses.

Recently, an American, running an Internet site for soldiers who participated in the Korean War, raised this issue formally at the American Congress and the Korean Embassy to the United States after setting up another space to object to Korean spam-mails.

In his letter to American senators, he asked for a counter-measure, saying “After the addresses of the members were exposed to the senders of spam-mails in Korea, a spate of lascivious mails are increasing. It is extremely hard to run the site because of the protests of the members.”

Another American protested, “I am afraid to open my e-mail account every day because of the obscene spams from Korea. Who will be responsible for it if my kids happen to see them?”

As such mails from Korea spreads Asia including Japan and China these days, the damages caused by them are snowballing.

Choi Yoon-jeong, a researcher of anti-spam team of the KISA, said, “Until last year, such reports came mostly from America, but now they are coming from all over the world including Europe and Asia. Accordingly the cases of report became much more than the previous year.”

The problem is even more serious in that foreigners cannot even read nor block the mails written in Korean.

In relation to this, the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) is set to amend the Enforcement of Ordinance of the Information and Communication law to add @ to e-mail subjects when sending mails in large numbers from June.

However, some point out that such measure will fall short of preventing the spams from crossing the borders. In practice, it is impossible to inform the netizens all around the world of such a measure, and there is no guarantee that the senders of spams will abide by the related law.

Jong sik Kong kong@donga.com