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South Korea is still the fastest Internet country on the planet, Microsoft software still has a big bullseye painted on it by hackers and password theft continues to be all the rage in the nether regions of the Web.

Many of the findings from Akamai’s State of the Internet Report for January-March 2008 shouldn’t come as a surprise to most technology watchers. But you might be scratching your head to learn that according to the web hosting company, Delaware is the state with the fastest Internet connections and Washington state - home to Microsoft and Amazon - is the slowest state, with the most connections at speeds of 256 kbps or slower.

Some other bullet points from the report:

• China is the country with the most attack-based web traffic, but the U.S. runs a close second. China may have also been the source of the Pennsylvania State website hack attempt last January.
• Online gaming sites were popular with hackers planting password-stealing software; more than 10,000 such sites were targeted in March. The hacked passwords are used “to steal in-game resources to re-sell for cash” (sci-fi fans will recognize some similarities to the new Charles Stross novel, “Halting State.")
• Although Akamai is encouraged by the increase in broadband adoption worldwide, “as the quantity of HD-quality media increases over time and the consumption of that media increases, end users will require ever-increasing amounts of bandwidth.” Akamai is defining high-speed broadband as 5 mbps or better and simple “broadband” as 2 mbps or better. HD video will need at least 40 mbps to knock your digital socks off.

Read [Akamai State of the Internet (free registration required)]

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