By Justin Lee, theWHIR.com
June 16, 2008 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — The Hong Kong Domain Name Registration Company (hkdnr.hk) said last week that the daily average number of spam and phishing cases related to the .hk domain name drops 92 percent year-on-year.
The organization-compiled “‘.hk’ Domain Name Spamvertising & Phishing Report” reveals a daily average of 38 such cases was recorded throughout 2007, while the number dropped to three from January to May 2008.
The news either contradicts or is a direct response to a recent announcement by security vendor McAfee (mcafee.com) that .hk is the most dangerous domain in the world, moving from number 28 in 2007 to the top of the company’s “Mapping the Mal Web” survey. Meanwhile, 19 percent of .hk sites are serving up malware., said McAfee.
“HKDNR is committed to providing a safe Internet environment for the community and has put in place various measures against suspicious websites,” says 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 to monitor and control the situation.”
Shea says that the HKDNR has also taken greaterl verification measures for online payment of domain registration, adding that The Hong Kong Police alert the organization of any criminal cases involving ‘.hk’ domains.
Additionally, the HKCERT helps HKDNR come up with guidelines for verification of phishing domains while OFTA gives an updated list of spamvertising ‘.hk’ domains to HKDNR daily as well as advised on spamvertising verification criteria.
By deploying these initiatives, Shea says that more than 14,000 .hk domain names were suspended by the organization this year by the end of May, while 85 percent of these were related to spamvertising activities and about 15 percent were affiliated with phishing sites.
