Akamai, one of the world's largest globally distributed networks, released its State of the Internet report today that found a steep increase in the percentage of attacks originating in China. In the second quarter of 2012, only 16 percent of attacks came from the country, but that rose to 33 percent in the period ended in September. The U.S. came in at No. 2 with 13 percent, up sequentially from 12 percent.
Along with the cyberattack data, Akamai found that broadband speeds in the U.S. are still less than half those in No. 1 South Korea, but the gap narrowed a bit in the third quarter. The average measured connection speed in the U.S., at No. 9 on the list, was 7.2Mbps versus South Korea at 14.7Mbps. In the second quarter, the U.S. was at 6.6Mbps while Korea was at 14.2Mbps.
Overall, the global average connection speed slid by about 6.8 percent to 2.8Mbps from the second to third quarter. Despite the sequential decline, the global average connection speed climbed 11 percent from the previous year.
The global average peak connection speed -- which put Hong Kong in first place with 54Mpbs -- also slid a bit sequentially, down 1.4 percent to 15.9Mbps in the third quarter. However, it jumped 36 percent from the previous year.
The U.S. doesn't even rank in the top 10 in terms of peak connection speed, instead coming in at No. 14 with speeds of 29.6Mbps. Countries like Latvia and Romania even boast faster peak connections than the U.S.
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