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China – The worst in Asia
posted Tuesday, 25 July 2006
Once again the figures are in and, once again, China rates as the largest single offender in Asia and the second largest offender in the world.
According to newly released figures, China ranks just below the United States, is than twice as bad an offender as its nearest Asian Rival - South Korea - and is somewhere in the region of ten times worse than either Japan or the disputed island of Chinese-Taiwan.
“But what exactly is China the worst in Asia at?” You might well ask. “The denial of history?”, “the censorship of the press?”, “the lack of transparency in its program of military modernization?”. Well... yes ...all of these are somewhat true, but they are not the particular topic which is being referred to on this occasion.
According to a report released by the British based internet security firm Sophos, China ranks the largest single source of email spam in Asia. Throwing out a gargantuan 20 Percent of all global spam, and only narrowly avoiding the top spot; currently occupied by the US, which produces 23.2 Percent of the world's email spam.
1. United States 23.2%
2. China 20.0%
3. South Korea 7.5%
4. France 5.2%
5. Spain 4.8%
6. Poland 3.6%
7. Brazil 3.1%
8. Italy 3.0%
9. Germany 2.5%
10. United Kingdom 1.8%
11. Taiwan 1.7%
12. Japan 1.6%
Victim or Aggressor?
While Sophos's statistics appear pretty conclusive in labeling China as a threat to the global operation of the internet, experts with the firm have been quick to point out that while 20 percent of the world's spam is transmitted from computers within China, much of it does not actually originate from China.
Instead, this spam is often foreign in origin, and is being relayed through Chinese computers by overseas 'Spam Gangs' who have used a variety malicious computer programs to compromise computers in Chinese homes, businesses and schools and to turn them into 'relay stations' for the propagation of commercially written spam.
A similar situation exists in Asia's number two Spammer, south Korea, where the number of 'always on' broadband connections, a lack of awareness of the need for firewall and virus protection, and the proliferation of 'unpatched' PCs – personal computers which have not been upgraded to include the latest security updates – are thought to be significantly to blame for much of the spam being sent out by the countries computers.
Ignoring and Ignorance
Unlike the US, which has enacted 'aggressive' legislation allowing the prosecution of domestic companies that advertize through spam, that gather gather/sell email lists for spam, or who attempt to compromise personal computers for the purpose of using them to send spam, China enacted very few regulations and taken very little action against domestic individuals or entities involved in spam. It has also done little to educate users about the need to protect their personal computers from the viruses and 'Trogan Horse' computer programs that relay spam.
Instead, much of China's internet legislation and enforcement efforts have been devoted towards online media censorship.
According to newly released figures, China ranks just below the United States, is than twice as bad an offender as its nearest Asian Rival - South Korea - and is somewhere in the region of ten times worse than either Japan or the disputed island of Chinese-Taiwan.
“But what exactly is China the worst in Asia at?” You might well ask. “The denial of history?”, “the censorship of the press?”, “the lack of transparency in its program of military modernization?”. Well... yes ...all of these are somewhat true, but they are not the particular topic which is being referred to on this occasion.
According to a report released by the British based internet security firm Sophos, China ranks the largest single source of email spam in Asia. Throwing out a gargantuan 20 Percent of all global spam, and only narrowly avoiding the top spot; currently occupied by the US, which produces 23.2 Percent of the world's email spam.
1. United States 23.2%
2. China 20.0%
3. South Korea 7.5%
4. France 5.2%
5. Spain 4.8%
6. Poland 3.6%
7. Brazil 3.1%
8. Italy 3.0%
9. Germany 2.5%
10. United Kingdom 1.8%
11. Taiwan 1.7%
12. Japan 1.6%
Victim or Aggressor?
While Sophos's statistics appear pretty conclusive in labeling China as a threat to the global operation of the internet, experts with the firm have been quick to point out that while 20 percent of the world's spam is transmitted from computers within China, much of it does not actually originate from China.
Instead, this spam is often foreign in origin, and is being relayed through Chinese computers by overseas 'Spam Gangs' who have used a variety malicious computer programs to compromise computers in Chinese homes, businesses and schools and to turn them into 'relay stations' for the propagation of commercially written spam.
| “The vast majority of this spam is relayed by 'zombies', also known as botnet computers, hijacked by Trojan horses, worms and viruses under the control of hackers.” Sophos |
A similar situation exists in Asia's number two Spammer, south Korea, where the number of 'always on' broadband connections, a lack of awareness of the need for firewall and virus protection, and the proliferation of 'unpatched' PCs – personal computers which have not been upgraded to include the latest security updates – are thought to be significantly to blame for much of the spam being sent out by the countries computers.
| “Sophos recommends that computer users ensure they keep their security software up-to-date, as well as using a properly configured firewall and installing the latest operating system security patches.” Sophos |
Ignoring and Ignorance
Unlike the US, which has enacted 'aggressive' legislation allowing the prosecution of domestic companies that advertize through spam, that gather gather/sell email lists for spam, or who attempt to compromise personal computers for the purpose of using them to send spam, China enacted very few regulations and taken very little action against domestic individuals or entities involved in spam. It has also done little to educate users about the need to protect their personal computers from the viruses and 'Trogan Horse' computer programs that relay spam.
Instead, much of China's internet legislation and enforcement efforts have been devoted towards online media censorship.
View Comments/Add a Comment (3)
1. China Law Blog left...
Wednesday, 26 July 2006 12:00 am
The problem with all of this is that there are many hosting services out
there that block EVERYTHING from China in an effort to reduce spam.
Obviously this does not work for those of us who do business with China.
Because our website is in Chinese and English, we get spam in Chinese as
well, usually someone trying to sell us receipts to use to illegally avoid
Chinese taxes.
2. ACB left...
Wednesday, 26 July 2006 12:52 am :: http://angrychineseblogger.blog-city.com
Be glad that you don't have to do business with Korea.
3. Sarah left...
Thursday, 27 July 2006 8:48 am
I'm getting a lot of Chinese spam, not all of it in English or in a western
language that I recognize. They're wasting their time and pixels, but I
guess they must be getting something out of it.