China Gets Tough on Porn & Cyber Bad Guys
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In recent weeks, Chinese government agencies have introduced a range of measures to crack down on Internet badness, online gaming, and pornographic Websites that use .cn domains.
Netizens outside China may ask, "Why should I care?" The answer is that a significant proportion of Internet cybercriminal activity -- malware, phishing, spam -- has emanated from invariably anonymous .cn domains over the last few years, alongside the phenomenal Internet growth in China.
As I described in an earlier blog, servers such as the one named "AS 4134 - CHINANET" are very high on international lists of hosts serving many forms of badness.
At present, China itself is under assault from a wave of pornographic, gaming, and rogue Websites. A representative from CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Center) revealed to Chinese media that this special campaign aims to crack down on these Websites and the related domains to fight abuses.
It will now be a requirement of new registrations to prove their authenticity before a purchase can be made. China will only allow registered businesses to purchase new .cn domain names; individuals will be barred from purchasing domains, and anonymity will be removed.
Legitimate domain names will have enhanced protection of their their rights and interests and will "not be rashly closed or canceled." It will be within the jurisdiction of domain name registrars to revoke ownership of domain names that point to badness, gaming, or pornographic Websites. Finally, a "prize money" incentive will be offered to users who directly report abuse.
CNNIC also has coordinated with domain name registrars to terminate over 1,000 pornography-related Websites. In an effort to "purify the online environment for teenagers in China," CNNIC has instigated an online complaint reporting service where all Internet users can report issues relating to bad domain names. Reports can be filed to
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.
Meanwhile, to encourage Internet users to actively inform on bad domain names, from now on CNNIC's complaint treatment center will each day draw ten users whose reports have been verified to give each a gift worth around $29 (CNY 200).
In order to further enhance the authenticity, accuracy, and integrity of the domain name system, the following regulations came into force on Dec. 14, 2009, and now form part of the registration process:
- Domain name applicants need to submit a formal paper-based application to the registrar. The application material includes the original application form with business seal, company business license (photocopy), and registrant ID (photocopy).
- Registrars should carefully review the application material. When an application is deemed qualified, a registrar needs to submit the application material via fax or email to CNNIC and withhold the original application material.
- From the day of the submission of any online application, if CNNIC does not receive the formal paper-based application material within 5 days or the application material auditing is not qualified, the domain name to be applied will be deleted.
This is all a good move for .cn domains, of which there were 13,680,727 registered as of the end of 2009, an increase of around 1 million from the end of 2008. But it is still a little unclear what will happen to these existing domains and to the badness in other domains -- .com, .net, etc. -- that operate from Chinese cyberspace.
Probably the biggest question has to do with the Chinese view of badness. For many of us Internet badness would imply malware, phishing, spam, etc., but to the Chinese authorities it would appear the main priority is to eliminate online gambling and porn.
Although draconian from a registration level, the Chinese effort does demonstrate a real move toward improved Internet security for all of us, and perhaps in part, a good model for security on other domain registrations worldwide.
A little postscript: If you do report .cn badness, note that the online reporting form is currently only available in Chinese. However, using Google's translation available here will provide the form in English.
