China Finds War with Cyber-Crime a Difficult Task

The Ministry for Public Security in China said their nation is confronting a difficult fight against cyber crime.

According to local media, officials are not sure if introducing legislation to combat the increasing problem of Internet fraud and theft would be effective.

In a new survey that the Ministry of Public Security conducted, of 15,000 companies, it found that 65.7% had encountered online security problems from May 2006 to May 2007. It was 11.7% up from the last year.

The Internet problems include worms, viruses, Trojans, Web page manipulation, port scanning, junk e-mails, and Internet attacks.

The survey also revealed that the highest proportion of computers (91%), since 2001 when the annual survey first began, were suffering attacks from viruses compared to 73.54% recorded in the previous annual poll, and 88% during May 2004-May 2005.

Anti-virus engineer Shi Yu of Beijing Rising International Software remarked on October 4, 2007 that there was an explosion of viruses designed to steal virtual properties and accounts.

Shi Yu said that Beijing Rising International Software had captured as many as 134,000 viruses during the first six months of 2007 and it was 12% more than in 2006. Chinadaily.com published Shi Yu's statement on September 28, 2007.

A business chain among virus authors, hackers, sellers and buyers of virtual properties or banking information had been formed underground, Shi Yu said.

General Manager with the anti-virus division of Qihoo, Fu Sheng, said that the profits have become enormous from selling a bug. The amount earned could be up to millions of Yuan, while the risks are not too high. Chinadaily.com published this in news on September 28, 2007.

Symantec'a Internet Security threat report dated March 2007 has found that the Chinese mainland is repeatedly targeted by DoS (Denial of Service) attacks that crippled its Websites and networks. The DoS attacks accounted for 63% of total Internet attacks that Symantec monitored during the period of study.

According to the March report, it was reveled that 43% of spam zombies were also sheltered by China. In zombies, systems are taken over and used to infect other PCs.

Related article: China’s Best Initiatives To Deal With Spam

» SPAMfighter News - 10/17/2007