China as an Internet Threat - The facts!

I really do find some of the current wave of rhetoric about the threat to the internet from China really worrying, if not downright dangerous for international relations. I suppose it a good topic for poor technical journalism, to gain publication in US & European journals / web. Old adage; "Why let the facts spoil a good story"?

Ref: China leads Asia in malicious online activity - CNet News

Let me make my position clear, I am not Chinese and I do not live in China, however I do know a thing or two about internet security threats. Here are some facts for the readers who possibly might read the above article and take it as factual:



(a) As of Sept 20 07 the US is the clear leader in known Spam issues, by 5:1 over China (ref Spamhaus.org).



(b) The internet is global and any quantitative analysis must base itself on comparative users. Reasonable estimates now show about 2:1 of Chinese internet user access over US users and anywhere from 5 to 20:1 over other Asian countries. Based on this on any Spam or malware distributor estimation this would place China about tenth on any list on countries, and well down the list in Asia.



(c) In China there are severe legal penalties for such acts, recently Yahoo could distribute malware to 15 million of its users and hardly gets a technical press mention, and no legal sanction.



(d) Why you may ask am I so concerned? On a recent exploit tracking exercise, despite apparent Chinese language sites being the cause. These sites were actually based and funded out of Toronto with bullet proof servers out of San Francisco!



Remember it is just as easy to get a free mail.cn / low cost Chinese based hosting, or mail.ru for that matter, being based in the US. As it is to get a Hotmail or Yahoo hosting account.