Hong Kong is Beating Spam, Registrar Says

(pcworld) -- The Hong Kong Domain Name Registration Company (HKDNR) announced late last week that the daily average number of .hk domain name spam and phishing cases drops 92 percent year-on-year.

According to the "'.hk' Domain Name Spamvertising & Phishing Report" compiled the HKDNR, a daily average of 38 such cases was recorded throughout 2007, while the number dropped to 3 from January to May 2008.

The announcement contradicts -- and may be in response to -- a recent assertion by security vendor McAfee that the ".hk" domain name is the most dangerous, with about 19 percent of its sites serving up malware.

Registrar's Efforts

"HKDNR is committed to providing a safe Internet environment for the community and has put in place various measures against suspicious websites," said Jonathan Shea, CEO of HKDNR. "We have been working closely with the Office of the Telecommunications Authority Hong Kong Police and Hong Kong Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Centre (HKCERT) to monitor and control the situation,".

"We actively review our systems and domain name registration procedures and policies. In particular, we have implemented more stringent documentary requirements to combat suspicious applications in order to keep pace with the fast-changing Internet world," he added.

Shea noted that the HKDNR has also adopted additional verification measures for online payment of domain registration. He added that The Hong Kong Police inform HKDNR of criminal cases involving '.hk' domains in a timely manner and the HKCERT help HKDNR develop guidelines for verification of phishing domains while OFTA provided an updated list of spamvertising '.hk' domains to HKDNR daily and advised on spamvertising verification criteria.

As a result of these initiatives, more than 14,000 '.hk' domain names were suspended by HKDNR this year by the end of May, he said. Around 85 percent of these were related to spamvertising activities and about 15 percent were related to phishing websites, he added.