Romania's standing in the world rankings for internet connection speeds slipped slightly in the first quarter of 2012, but for hacking and viruses the country seems stronger than ever. Romania ranks eight in the world as a source of attack traffic, responsible for 3 percent of the global total. According to technology company Akamai's quarterly State of the Internet Report, the percentage of attack traffic originating in Romania increased from 2.6 percent in Q4 2011. The new 3 percent figure puts the country at level pegging with India, as well as closing the gap on seventh placed Brazil. China, the US, Russia, Turkey, Taiwan and South Korea occupy the top six places, while India and Germany follow Romania in the ninth and tenth spots. Romania's 0.4 percent quarterly increase was the second largest of the top ten countries, behind China's 3 percent jump. Global percentage of attack traffic fell back in significantly in Taiwan and South Korea.

Romania also ranks highly for average peak connection speeds, this figure measures highs, not average speeds, but, according to the report, provides a more representative value than simply measuring maximum connection speeds. Here Romania ranks fourth, with an average peak connection speed of 38.8 Mbps – a 9.9 percent quarterly increase and a 19.9 percent rise from the first quarter in 2011. The highest average peak connection speeds were recorded in Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan. Romania remains in the top ten globally for percentage of connections faster than 4 Mbps, ranking 10th with 63 percent. There were quarterly and year on year rises in the percentage of high speed connections, but at 3.3 and 4 percent respectively, the increases were more modest than elsewhere. For average connection speeds Romania ranks 13 in the world and 8 in the Europe, Middle East, Africa region. Average connection speeds showed a 3.6 percent quarterly increase to 6.6 Mbps, but a year on year fall of 0.3 percent.

Akamai provides global internet content and cloud services to businesses, it was founded in the late nineties by computer scientists from US science and technology university MIT and members of the internet business community. The company began operations in 1999 with Yahoo! As one of its first clients.

Liam Lever, liam@romania-insider.com

photo source: sxc.hu