19 June 2006
The UK's online population is receiving over 68 million spam emails every day, or 7,883 every second, according to new research from uSwitch.com.
The price comparison and switching website found that the UK now has 15.57 million homes online, but that has opened the country up to 13.21 million homes to potentially harmful spam attacks.
Almost a third of spammed home computers were found to experience problems as a result.
"Spam has been a problem ever since the internet became available to the general public in the late 80s, but as we've become an online nation, spam is an epidemic with potentially damaging consequences," said Chris Williams, uSwitch.com's broadband product manager.
"Millions of UK homes experience computer problems after receiving spam making online security imperative, so it is worrying that just 620,000 claim that they are using spam filters."
He added: "The majority of broadband suppliers offer a free spam filter so this should be part of the criteria used when shopping around for a new supplier. This is small step when considering the potential expense of replacing or repairing a damaged computer."