In 2010, the number of new viruses introduced in China was down by 56 percent to 7.5 million, but new phishing websites increased by 10 times and skyrocketed to 1.75 million.
According to a report is
sued by Beijing Rising International Software Co., there were more than 44 million phishing cheating cases in 2010, which amounted to a total loss of more than $20 billion yuan ($3 billion USD).
Phishing is a process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by disguising as a trustworthy website.
Online gamers and online banking clients were the main victims. Apart from that, the rise of e-commerce in China is also a key reason to explain the high number of phishing frauds. In China, e-commerce improved by 22 percent last year, totaling a whopping $4.5 trillion yuan. E-commerce also grew in terms of number of users as it was reported that China’s largest online retailer, Taobao.com, doubled its users from 176 million in 2009 to 370 million last year.
“… Security services and users’ security awareness have not grown to keep pace with the development of e-commerce, leaving it vulnerable to computer viruses and phishing activities that undermine the development of e-commerce in China,” said Su Huiyan, an e-commerce analyst with iResearch, an IT consultancy.
“Once they are tricked, some customers will lose their trust in e-commerce and stop shopping online forever,” Su said.
“It is essential for China’s e-commerce development that the government and online retailers make moves to provide more reliable security services and create a safe online shopping environment.”
To tackle the problem, Alibaba.com Ltd, owner of Taobao.com, signed an agreement with Intertek, a London-based Internet security to improve online security.
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