18 taking on malware attacks - world internet conference · 08/11/2018 · account’s followers....
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Thursday, November 8, 2018 CHINA DAILY
18 WORLD INTERNET CONFERENCE
TAKING ON MALWARE ATTACKS Cybersecurity will be a key topic of discussion at this week’s World Internet Conference in China, Cao Yin reports.
M alware attacks,especially onmobile devices,and phishing
attempts by fraudulent websites are two major problems that need to be solved urgentlyfor China to safeguard its cybersecurity, according to online security experts.
A recent report issued by theNational Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team and Coordination Center of China, stipulates that the number of malicious mobile applications have increased in the past three years and the growth continues to be rapid.
From January to June, theagency identified 1.48 million malicious mobile applications — nearly equal to the annual figure for 2015 — and identified more than 2.53 million mobile malware cyberthreats last year, up 23.4 percent yearonyear, of which, many aimedto steal online users’ money and personal data.
“Malware has damagedmobile devices more frequently than personal computers, and it is seriously damaging the security of netizens’ privacyand property,” said the agency’sdeputy director, Yun Xiaochun.
The agency worked with 92online platforms that sell mobile apps and helped them remove 8,364 malicious products from their stores last year.
At this year’s World InternetConference, which started in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province, on Wednesday, a forum on cybersecurity will be held on Friday, when security specialists and engineers will discuss the hottest issues in the sector and how to better safeguard netizens from cyberattacks.
Cybersecurity has been apopular issue among experts at the conference in the past, as well as among the public. Experts have talked about how to use technology to avoidsecurity risks, and also offered advice on the improvement of cybersecurity in China through the implementation
of stricter laws. Yun noted the fight against
such mobile malware threats is still a challenge to the country. Some mobile users are compelled to read advertisements and some have to set a certain website as the home page when downloading smartphone apps, which are otherwise not easy to be foundand stopped, he said.
Chen Wending, manager ofthe Nandu Big Data Institute of the newspaper Southern Metropolis Daily, agreed.
“It’s hard to track thoseresponsible, including hackers who make or provide the malware, and to collect evidence in crossborder cases,” he said about producing a report for ecommerce giant, Alibaba Group, in August.
“The attackers could cover
every aspect of cyberspace,” Chen said. “For instance, somefocus on designing or editing programs to inject Trojan malware to steal mobile users’ personal data, while some target on charging for promoting these programs.”
As the malware attacks happen frequently, the number of phishing sites that aim to stealdata and personal information has also gone up.
Yun’s agency said in thereport that many Chinese netizens experienced economic losses after reading fake websites last year, and 43.9 percentof phishing sites were found registered overseas, up 14.2 percent yearonyear.
To effectively solve the problem, the agency has sought to increase international cooperation, such as reporting web
pages that are fake to equivalent organizations in the attackers’ countries.
The report said the agencysent more than 17,000 incidents relating to phishing sitesto institutes in China and abroad last year, including the United States and India, and it also made greater efforts in reviewing financial and telecom websites, helping to fix more than 25,000 phishing webpages at the same time.
In addition to the increasedmonitoring by the agency to maintain the country’s cybersecurity, big internet companies are also endeavoring to fight online threats with the help of technology, legislation and by enhancing public awareness.
Thanks to a series of technological innovations to lower online security risks, the total
number of PCs controlled or affected by malware reduced to 12.6 million in 2017, down 26.1 percent yearonyear, the report said, adding that it was the third consecutive year to see a reduction in such threats in the Chinese mainland, and that the attacks mainly originated from malicious programs created overseas, including in countries such as the US and Russia.
China’s first CybersecurityLaw took effect in June last year, which means the countryhas started safeguarding its cyberspace on a legal basis for better network protection.
Additionally, the Cyberspace Administration of China, the top national watchdog for regulating internet affairs, has taken charge of hosting the Cybersecurity Week since
2014. During the annual event,citizens can see the most popular security products, learn more about the latest online security mechanisms as well as get advice from industry professionals.
Internet and technologycompanies, such as Alibaba and Qihoo 360, have also made efforts to follow and analyze new cyberattacks by offering online cybersecurity training and providing classes at college campuses to teach about cybersecurity.
But Zhu Wei, an associate
law professor at China University of Political Science and Law, said more needs to be done to fight online threats.
Zhou Hongyi, chairman ofQihoo 360, a major provider ofsecurity software, also suggested in August that the country should invest more money andlabor into cybersecurity.
“We will be more powerfulin fighting online attacks when the security industry becomes stronger.”
Contact the writer at [email protected]
Egovernance continues to advance with innovationBy WANG [email protected]
Government authorities,alongside experts from home and abroad, are calling for more international cooperation to promote the sustainable development of online public services and governance at the fifth World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province.
The development of information and communication technologies has influenced every dimension of society, including the way the government interacts with citizens. The advent of electronic governance has advanced management reform.
At 11 am on Oct 1, the SafeBeijing Sina Weibo microblogaccount advised its 12.5 million followers to be careful about the driving routes they selected since the weeklong National Day holiday would see millions of travelers from all over the country pour into Beijing, and tourist attractions and surrounding areas would likely be clogged with severe traffic congestion.
Safe Beijing posted about60 messages, detailing road closures, traffic updates, safety information and news stories, throughout the holiday.
The posts were forwardedand commented on by the account’s followers. One post — in response to an incident at a Beijing shopping mall in which three women snatched a baby from his stroller — wasforwarded over 290,000 times.
Safe Beijing is a new tool forBeijing’s public security bureau, the city’s primary police force.
Onlinegovernance serviceslike Safe Beijing seek to increase the use of internet technologies to promote interaction among officials, citizens and businesses, and increase social services’ availability, transparency and efficiency.
Internet Plus governancewas, for the first time, included in the government work report of the 2015 two sessions— the annual meeting of the country’s top legislature and advisory body, the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
The State Council, China’sCabinet, then issued a guideline to promote the initiative and improve government services’ quality and efficiency.
Government bodies at alllevels across the country have opened a total of more than 170,000 accounts on Sina Weibo, over 500,000 on WeChat and about 20,000 portals to improve administration, Xinhua News Agency reported in June.
“We’re living in the internetage,” says Renmin University professor of public administration and policy Fang Zhenbang.
“Using online tools to facilitate public services is an important step to accelerate governance reform, since the internet is the fastest and most convenient way for the government to interact with,
munity” that integrates basic data from departments like public security, education, health, civil affairs and tourism.
The portal enables residents to find the information they need online rather than actually visit government offices.
“We see the platform playan important role, especially in medical treatment,” says Ye Yuantuan, deputy director of the Karamay Cloud Comput
ing Industrial Park, which provides data to support the “smart community”.
“For example, if a patientneeds an emergency blood transfusion, medical staff can use the platform to quickly find a donor with the right blood type and rapidly reach that volunteer.”
The platform also monitorssuch data as water, electricity and gas that’s closely related to residents’ daily lives, which enables the government to
better care for the elderly. Community authorities visit retirees’ homes if there are anyabnormalities to make sure they’re safe, Ye says.
China had 802 millioninternet users and 470 million onlinegovernmentservice users as of June, the China Internet Network Information Center reports. That’s about 60 percent of all internet users in the country.
While traditional egovernance applications have been infused into people’s daily lives, government departments have started to use the latest socialnetworking services, such as Douyin, known as Tik Tok overseas, to reach wider audiences and expand services.
Douyin was founded as astreaming service for music, gaming and dance videos in September 2016.
Its popularity has skyrocketed since it diversified its content to include gourmet food, exercise, travel and culture.
It attracted more than 150million active daily users and 300 million a month between January and June. Over 40 percent were aged 24 to 30, the company says.
Douyin’s surging growthhas encouraged more than 2,800 government departments and media organizations, including the Stateowned Assets Supervision andAdministration Commission and People.cn, to open accounts, according to the company’s report in August.
Shaanxi province’s capital,Xi’an, has come to be known as Douyin’s “celebrity city” because of the number of videos created there that have gone viral. The platform says its more than 610,000 short videos about the city had been
watched more than 3.6 billion times by the end of April.
Xi’an’s tourism arrivalsgrew by nearly 40 percent yearonyear and tourism revenue increased by about 50 percent during the Tomb Sweeping Day holiday in April, the city’s tourism development commission reports.
Governmentrelated Douyin accounts posted 100,000 videos that received more than 50 billion hits in the first nine months of the year, according to Beijing ByteDance Technology, a news andinformationcontent provider.
Chinese Academy of Governance professor of public management, Zhu Lijia, says the government is constantly working to improve communications.
“The government has keptpace with every new internet product, and every new mediaplatform has enabled it to build a more approachable and interactive image,” Zhu says.
“Many social issues havebeen resolved thanks to publicexposure on internet platforms. People have places to comment, and the government hears their voices.”
The 2018 United NationsEGovernment Survey ranked China 34th among 193 countries and regions around the world in terms of the availability of online services in egovernance.
China can learn from the top10 countries, including neighbors, the Republic of Korea and Japan, Zhu says.
Exploring new communication modes should be encouraged. But government departments should ultimately plan for longterm operations and not open accounts because of peer pressure or as vanity projects, Zhu adds.
Source: The National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team and Coordination Center of China (CNCERT) CHINA DAILY
The number of computers infected by malware, such as Trojan horses or zombie viruses, in the Chinese mainland (2013 - 2017)
The number of mobile malware programs and apps caught by China (2013 - 2017)
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
Unit: million 12.6
17
19.8
11.1
11.4
2.53 million
2.1 million
1.5 million
951,059
702,861
2013
2014
including 2,430 government related websites
including 1,763 government related websites
including 898 government related websites
including 467 government related websites
including 618 government related websites
2015
2016
2017
The number of hacked or falsified websites discovered in the Chinese mainland (2013 - 2017)
20,111
16,758
24,550
36,969
24,034
A company employee scans the code of a digital ID security system using his mobile phone at a booth at the ongoing Fifth World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, Tongxiang county, Zhejiang province, on Wednesday. XU YU / XINHUA
and provide services for, the public.”
Egovernance is not onlycrucial to streamlining administration, strengthening supervision and optimizing services but is also important for transforming government functions, improving efficiency and transparency, and stimulatingmarket vitality and social creativity, Fang says.
It’s not limited to government organs in the moredeveloped cities, such as Beijing,Shanghai and Shenzhen, but has also been growing in popularity in other parts of China in recent years.
The government of Karamay in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region has developed its egovernance initiative since 2013, focused on informing citizens and promoting interaction.
The local government builta website named “smart com
Using online tools to facilitate public services is an important step to accelerate governance reform.”Fang Zhenbang, professor of public administration and policy, Renmin University
Top: A staff member of Meiyuan subdistrict, Yuehu district of the city of Yingtan, Jiangxi province, browses an online platform to check and reply to citizens’ messages. PAN SIWEI / XINHUA
Above: Citizens use their mobile phones to scan QR codes and trace the source of meat and vegetables in Xi’an, Shaanxi province. MA ZHAO / FOR CHINA DAILY