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Pindar Wong - Black Rainstorm over .HK
Clearly there were two storms in HK last weekend, with the second one causing mailboxes to overflow with headlines how .HK is now the world's most dangerous domain.
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I'll admit my first reaction on reading the sensational headlines surrounding McAfee's report, 'Mapping the Mal Web, Revisited' was one of surprise, then denial and lastly deep disappointment.
Surprise:'My goodness ... Hong Kong's Websites the world's riskiest!' Denial: 'How on earth is this possible?' Deep disappointment: 'There goes our reputation.'
It's easy to blame the weather report for bad weather, but this would be a mistake on par with blaming the messenger for bad news. Certainly there will need to be a detailed accounting as to the relevance and accuracy of the study itself, but that misses the point which I'd like to raise : 'Running a Registry is Hard.'
It's hard because running a registry well requires specialist knowledge and expertise to balance delicate technical, commercial and public policy considerations, which often contradict each other. There are different models how registries should be run (e.g. thick vs thin) and different technologies how registrars could interface with registries (e.g. using the Extensible Provisioning Protocol).
So the world is now watching how we responsibly respond to such a devastating blow to our online credibility. The silver lining therefore is to use this Saturday's event which Charles has initiated to show that we're capable of doing what it takes to demand excellence, accountability and good governance.
Pindar Wong,
Local Internet pioneer,
Former Vice Chairman of ICANN
Hong Kong - An Unsafe Place to Surf?
Organized by Internet Society Hong Kong and Professional Information Security Association
Date: Saturday, June 14, 2008
Time: 2:15pm - 5:00pm
Venue: Room 202, Duke of Windsor Social Service Building, 15 Hennessy Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong
Free Admission
In a recent report "Mapping the Mal Web Revisited" by McAfee, the ".hk" domain is rated the most high risk domain for web surfing. The report has aroused much attention on the trust and confidence of Hong Kong as an international business hub and financial centre.
Is the report really reflecting problems that Hong Kong needs to deal with? What are they and how can we deal with them? How can we benchmark the performance in information security assurance of Hong Kong? We have organized a public forum and have invited industry professionals to jointly discuss this topic.
Speakers: Charles Mok (ISOC HK), Leo Chan (information security industry), Jonathan Shea (HKDNR), Roy Ko (HKCERT), York Mok (HKISPA), Bernard Kan (PISA), SC Leung (IT Voice).
Registration: Email rsvp@isoc.hk with your name, organization/company name, email and phone number.
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Serving The Public
In 2000, I was appointed to the Central Policy Unit (CPU) and Consumer Council by the Hong Kong SAR Government. These were the first times I was invited to serve Hong Kong in broader aspects outside of IT.
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As a Part-Time Member of the CPU, I advised the Chief Executive, Chief Secretary and Financial Secretary on all policies matters. Whether or not this system is effective or not, it was great exposure and effective learning for me.
The Consumer Council experience was even more rewarding in that as a statutory body in operation, and one with a long-standing and respectable reputation in the community, we had the chance to use what resources we had in hand to make a difference. In those years, working mainly with former Chief Executive Pamela Chan (picture above) and other staff, I played an active role in the use of IT and mobile technology to further disseminate consumer information and education, and focused on trade practice and competition related issues, including the Internet and telecommunications areas.
Charles Mok
charlespmok@gmail.com
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Strengthen Hong Kong's Internet and Security Infrastructure
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Within days last week, MessageLabs said Hong Kong had the world's worst spam problems with 85.9% of all email as junk, and McAfee claimed that ".hk" domains were the world's riskiest. Not only is our business environment at risk, our hard-earned reputation may be squandered easily.
Over the years, I have consistently called for sustained and enlarged public funding support for HKCERT, and efforts to conduct proactive network monitoring against outside threats. |
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Everyone knows prevention is better than cure, but why not act with concrete supportive measures?
It is when we lack these professional defenses and expertise operation (e.g. with the domain registry) that we find ourselves speechless and helpless in face of international criticisms (which we are trying to do nonetheless now).
We don't have to suffer from junk phone calls and the threats of malware programs and just live with it. We can taking action together to make the Internet safe for all. Please contact me with your views!
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Hong Kong's Risky Domains
CNN's Kristie Lu Stout speaks with Internet pioneer Pindar Wong about the dangers of Hong Kong Web sites, on Jun 5, 2008.
 
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Read Beyond the Local Headlines:
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