Coordinated effort to tackle phishing
Source: Xinhua/Shanghai Daily |
December 31, 2011, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE government is working with domestic Internet search engines - including Baidu Inc and Sohu.com - and financial institutions to prevent phishing attacks on unsuspecting web users.
The Ministry of Public Security said yesterday it will liaise with 10 Chinese search engines to protect the website rankings of financial institutions and lessen the chances of Internet users being duped.
Through the collaboration, the official websites of several Chinese banks - including Agricultural Bank of China and China Construction Bank - will be ranked first by the search engine when a user searches for the related keywords, the ministry said.
A phishing attack occurs when the user is persuaded to reveal their username and password via a fake web page that resembles the original.
Phishing attacks are generally done through bogus websites that appear legitimate by using web addresses or log-in web page designs similar to banks' official Internet banking service portals.
Phishing victims are often fooled by fraudulent links turned out by search engines.
Upon entering such sites, customers are asked to verify their account information by entering usernames and passwords. These can then be used to commit fraud.
The first batch of financial institutions covered by this new scheme includes five major state-owned banks and two financial organizations, the statement said.
Moreover, some search portals have added an official logo to each bank's legitimate link to make it "remarkably different" from unauthorized results.
Hacking cases reported this week have raised public concerns.
Personal details of millions of subscribers to several websites, including CSDN - the country's largest programmers' website - and popular online gaming and social networking sites, were leaked.
And on Thursday, police confirmed that job applicants' details leaked from a government database in the southern province of Guangdong due to technical loopholes.
China has 485 million Internet users, the highest number of any country.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has said it will investigate the hacking incidents.
The Ministry of Public Security said yesterday it will liaise with 10 Chinese search engines to protect the website rankings of financial institutions and lessen the chances of Internet users being duped.
Through the collaboration, the official websites of several Chinese banks - including Agricultural Bank of China and China Construction Bank - will be ranked first by the search engine when a user searches for the related keywords, the ministry said.
A phishing attack occurs when the user is persuaded to reveal their username and password via a fake web page that resembles the original.
Phishing attacks are generally done through bogus websites that appear legitimate by using web addresses or log-in web page designs similar to banks' official Internet banking service portals.
Phishing victims are often fooled by fraudulent links turned out by search engines.
Upon entering such sites, customers are asked to verify their account information by entering usernames and passwords. These can then be used to commit fraud.
The first batch of financial institutions covered by this new scheme includes five major state-owned banks and two financial organizations, the statement said.
Moreover, some search portals have added an official logo to each bank's legitimate link to make it "remarkably different" from unauthorized results.
Hacking cases reported this week have raised public concerns.
Personal details of millions of subscribers to several websites, including CSDN - the country's largest programmers' website - and popular online gaming and social networking sites, were leaked.
And on Thursday, police confirmed that job applicants' details leaked from a government database in the southern province of Guangdong due to technical loopholes.
China has 485 million Internet users, the highest number of any country.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has said it will investigate the hacking incidents.
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