Fergie's Tech Blog

Inside China's Spam Crisis

Thomas Claburn writes on InformationWeek:

While China is cracking down on Google for displaying search results that lead to harmful content and trying to get its Green Dam Web filter on every PC in the country, it may want to consider the role that poor oversight of local companies plays in the distribution of "unhealthy" material.

In the case of spam, through which pornography, malware, and scams are spread, most of it appears to be coming from inside China. Approximately 70% of all domains used in spam since the beginning of 2009 have a Chinese top-level domain (.cn), according to Gary Warner, director of research in computer forensics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

This is not to say the spammers themselves necessarily reside in China. Rather, these international criminals have found it profitable to take advantage of poorly regulated infrastructure in China.

"I truly believe that the Chinese government would not willingly tolerate this horrible situation," Warner said in a blog post Saturday. "My only answer is that it must not have been properly brought to their attention so far."

Warner characterizes the situation in China as a spam crisis. The problem, he explains, is threefold.

posted by Fergie @ 6/22/2009 05:31:00 PM