Slashdot Mirror
Reuters: 80% of Chinese Computers Virus Infected
Alien54 writes "A rueters news report says that 80% of computers in China have been touched by a computer virus. They quote a a six-week survey conducted by the [Chinese] National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center cited in the official China Daily newspaper."
Can someone say goldmine for anti-virus makers, at least ones that can produce a chinese version of their product... but oh yeah, with the insanely high % of piracy as well, it doesn't look like anyone would buy the product legit!
The reason Santa is so jolly is that he knows where all the bad girls live.
That "Great Firewall Of China" does a lot of good!
80% of China's computer run windows
I must point out a factual inaccuracy in the article summary. It is not stated that 80% of Chinese computers have at one point experienced a virus infection. In fact, it is stated that over 80% of a sample group of Chinese computer users believed they had been infected with a virus. This perception is a much muddier number, considering I know many of my colleagues believe that advertising pop-up ads for casinos are actually computer viruses.
Here is the source for my observation:
"Only 16 percent of computer users we sampled this year reported they were free from any virus attack, while last year nearly one in three users said they suffered no computer infections," the newspaper quoted the center's chief engineer, Zhang Jian, as saying.
Dr. Joseph Hairston
Superintendent, CCBC
If China's gov't can filter so much of the content that their citizens view, you would think that they would somehow figure out how to filter viruses in email attachments and stuff (which is possible)
Or PERHAPS, the name of the Virus is Win32.China.Is.Spying.On.Its.Citzens.Virus
Hmm
Tibbon
tibbon.com
I know it's a tired argument but most of the news in china is made up.
I just wonder what would China have to gain by saying all their computers are 0w3d? Is it the "National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center" trying to get more funding?
I know I'm going to hell, I'm just trying to get good seats.
That Chinese people like opening temping attachments that promice love, porn, dancing bears, and greeting cards. O_o
on a serious note:
My computer has only been infected twice, both of them rare and harmless viruses. In the past year I have had zero infections... unless you are downloading every single program you can get your hands on or are opening attachments like an AOL newb viruses aren't that big of a problem. (or Kazaa users, but I won't go there. I use WinMX)
80% of computers in China have been touched by a computer virus
Typical Slashdot journalism. "touched by a virus" is far different than "infected by a virus". My computer gets touched by viruses all the time, but it never actually gets infected, because I keep my apache (the only service running) up-to-date.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
It's not extremely surprising. Most asian computer users are still not very well versed in the English language, and that is proven in some of the email text found on virus infected emails.
Because of the poor grasp of English, emails with attached 'cute wallpaper', 'nude pics of Brittney', and 'Figures you please review' will be opened 8 our of 10 times.
Without a big flashing strobe light on top of monitors that would alarm when an infected email appears, most asian users will continue to open infected email without a second thought.
------
Amadaeus
The last bastion of Mathie-ism
On the other hand, this could be the start of something big. There is reason to believe that "junk DNA", which comprises about 90% of the human genome, is leftover virus DNA. How much of human evolution was driven by viral infection either indirectly or directly? Might the same happen to computers? I think it might be smart to leave China's computii infected and see if an AI evolves. Put up a firewall, of course, in case of a Predator scenario.
It probably isn't much better here in the US. I know that where I work, before we got our network anti-virus, it was probably close to 95% of computers had been touched by a virus. The email based virii spread through the whole company in 2 weeks max.
I am a nobody. Since nobody is perfect, that means that I am perfect.
I guess they really do share everything then...
...oOOo..'(_)'..oOOo...
See Clam AntiVirus and OpenAntiVirus.
"Only 16 percent of computer users we sampled this year reported they were free from any virus attack"
My computer is attacked on a daily basis, but my computer is virus free...
Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
Probably has something to do with the amount of piracy. I mean, how many pirates deliberately contact the owner of the software they copied in order to pick up updates? Especially with something like Windows, where you don't know what data is being sent back to them.
I can't say that I don't give a fuck. I've just run out of fuck to give.
Computer viruses are small programs often sent via e-mail or hidden in other software. Once inside a computer, they can do malicious tasks like erase data or reproduce and send copies to other machines over the Internet.
I find it disturbing that in the year 2002, Reuters still has to explain to people what a "computer virus" is.
Jesus Christ. What's next, a description of the keyboard as "that typewriter thing on the desk" and the monitor as "the TV thing with all the pictures" ?
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Maybe they're publishing this in order to support MORE filtering so they can "stop the virii" and have more control over their citizens. This would help them justify blocking email attachments and more ports.
I am a nobody. Since nobody is perfect, that means that I am perfect.
I personally have been 'touched' by many viruses (virii?) in the past, but they all got stopped by my antivirus.... i guess i would count as being in that 80%..... Touched is not the same as infected.....
so now we have a computer virus incubator too.
which leads to an interesting thought. maybe some days viruses will be created by computers and breed like flu does. They will gather strenght in a compliant population (china) before emerging to the real world.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
These people have robot dogs, and robot fish, and giant robots with guns for heads.
Yeah, that's right Norton, get on the m*therfucker.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
This brief but rather trenchant opinion piece on the same subject ran yesterday in Asahi Shimbun; reading it, you can see that the media in Japan (as usual) have a considerably firmer grasp on what's happening in China than the American media...
With this many infected Chinese computer systems infected it's no wonder all my warez are infected. I think them Chinese people should check for computer viruses before sending me my warez =]
it's a good thing all my illegal VHS tapes I have can't be played on my system =]
I used to live in Beijing... as an american there you would be astonished at the rate of piracy. We're used to maybe picking up a copy of photoshop from a buddy, or you know someone who will burn you a copy of windows.... there they sell about any commercial software product (not too long after release) on pressed CDs (with case and jacket) for about a buck in just about any open marketplace. Needless to say, there are not too many people with 'real' versions of the software running around.
The problem with these CDs is that they have been cracked (so people can use them) by who-knows-who and frequently have other 'things' floating around on the CDs and i'm sure there huge numbers of virii that are being distributed in this way. It's really easy to picture an 80% infection rate. It's kinda like a high school computer lab where all the kids trade floppy disks and there is no anti-virus protection.... everyone has it before long.
Only 16 percent of computer users we sampled this year reported they were free from any virus attack
100-16 = 80%
Must have a loose nut on the old abacus.
Live web cams
80%?! I thought the majority of China is using Linux? What happened to all that press about Linux taking over Asia? I guess pirated Windows is still considered "free software."
Haven't they figured out how to pirate norton antivirus?
If the methods used were the same as those from the last survey: http://www.antivirus-china.org.cn/
Then the results are highly questionable. As it was an online survey. Without knowing the methods for all we know it could have been a website poll... and considering it's the National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center doing the survey then individuals completing the survey are probably more likely to be affiliated with such a site because they've *had* a virus.
Does any one actually read Chinese so they could give us the full story? The site's homepage is here:
http://www.antivirus-china.org.cn/
They go to internet cafes instead. I wouldn't be surprised if many of those cafes had a virus infection of 100%. Most of the cafes that are cheap enough to be affordable are unlicensed and poorly maintained.
Earlier this year, once such cafe caught fire and 40 users died. The PRC responded by shutting down thousands of these establishments... at least for a while.
That I'll get less spam from them?
Just wondering.
-Goran
Carpe Scrotum - The only way to deal with your competition.
Articles I've read on business management repeatedly cite the fact that the Chinese word for "crisis" also means "opportunity". I wonder if the Chinese word for "computer virus" also means "really cool pirated software with unexpected features".
Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
Knowing the amount of spam coming from there, maybe are a lot of spammers spreading virus in china. Maybe (I hope) someone think that is time to take extreme measures on spammers because of this
[sarcasm]
..
meanwhile, at cnn, abcnews, bbc, cbc, journalists are hard at work empowering you, a free man, with bias-free and editorization-free content.
the fact that they make money doing this is just a nice bonus to the fuzzy feelings they get in their tummy from helping you feel^H^H^H^Hbe a free citizen of planet earth.
[/sarcasm]
to be honest, sometimes i respect an out-of-the-closet dictatorial regime over the 'dont say it out loud' vested econo/poli agendas of major media conglomerates who still have the gall to act as if they dont have any vested interest in various stories/news
in other words, better to bias your content for a political/social goal than a purely financial one, although I appreciate that neither system ultimately serves humans on the basis of "what news is important".
please note I'm not condoning China's political system, only somewhat envious of the transparency in so far as agendas go
as a final huzzah, i believe that this article is about how many people *think* they were infected, not how many actuall were, so it wouldn't really be justification for some sort of tin-foil-hat conceived agenda.
"Old man yells at systemd"
If you asked the same question in an European country or in the US, the result would be "84 percent of computer users reported 'Huh?!' when asked whether their computer had been infected by a virus during the year". The environment is naturally much more hostile there in China, with over 90% piracy rate. It is actually a small miracle that "infected computers percentage" is lower than piracy rate.
They returned her computer a few days later and told her they gave it a liver transplant.
But it starts to get scary if you get sick in China, and the doctors ask which brand of harddrive you want installed in place of your appendix.
Table-ized A.I.
Sounds like a new primetime soap opera...
Tonight on Touched by a Virus, Gordon believes that he has been infected by "Millisa". Little does Gordon know that Millisa is spawning his CHILD!
come on fhqwhgads
Try this, ask 10 computer users (users, not geeks) these two questions:
1). Have you ever had a strange computer problem?
2). Think it could have been a virus?
I would lay money that you can find an 80% 'touched by a virus' rating on any group of people you like.
Anyone familar with the social sciences and / or statistics realizes that corrolation does not equal causation. However, if you're a gov't agencey (as one reader posted previously) in need of funding, corollation = causation is a very useful tool. Even more so when you engineer the corollation part.
This article is a waste of time.
Cheers,
-- RLJ
Species, however, is pretty close to what he was talking about with the predator (lowercase) evolving unpredictably from bad DNA.
Murphy was an optimist.
And the number one reported virus was:
BRUE SCLEEN OF DEATH!
To ensure perfect aim, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target
... is sending me spam.
I am quite civilized, and I should be brought a beer immediately. -- Bruce Sterling
That's because virus scanners are part of the pirated software. How else would 84% of the people know they had a virus?
//TODO: Think of witty sig statement
(Hey, that rhymes!)
Hey, you're a poet, and weren't aware of the fact!
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing -- Emo Phillips
Nothing in the post was factual, thus the humor in getting the wrong movie.
Ya, you probably claim to be able to interpret modern art, too. See, what he was really talking about was Total Recall. I know this is true, because it has a three breasted mutant whore who came from corrupted DNA, like he was saying. ;-)
You, sir, are what's wrong with Slashdot.
Good line, funny actually. Why am I what's wrong with slashdot when I merely suggested a movie that more closely fit the scenario he was talking about?
Dear god you are stupid.
Murphy was an optimist.
What do you bet that 80% of the 80% are also pirated copies of windows?
(+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.
This is an easy problem to fix. All these people need to do is search for "Virus Protection" on Google and ... oh wait ...
(Score:-1, Wrong)
All your base are belong t...*BSOD*
Comment removed based on user account deletion
the terms in this article are very odd ... 'touched by a virus' and 'free from any virus attack'? i would hate to have my expensive research represented by such a summary.
members are seeing something, your seeing an ad
I checked the site and found the following statement:
*** Where are we going? And what's with this handbasket?
Wow, that's even better than my answer! You must be a poet, too... ;-)
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing -- Emo Phillips
No, that's not what I was getting at. I think that many people from that area of the world are exposed to a lot of broken English, because they USE broken English. So if a virus showed up in an email using broken English, they might not spot the fact that it is a virus as fast as a native English speaker would.
I think some other posts farther down this discussion have the same general idea.
Murphy was an optimist.
A recent study by some guy down the street reveals that over 75% of all statistics are made up. "It comes as a real shocker to me, especially since 90% of all my decision making all day is based on statistics" says one local woman. The police chief says they're getting closer to figuring out who's releasing these made up statistics. He says "Well 85% of made up statistics are things people hear on a site known as Slashdot, and are then taken as fact, and passed on slightly distorted." "There are lies, damn lies and statistics." says local resident Benjamin Disraeli.
Well before everyone gets all ready to donate anti-virus software to china, please read the article. They don't mean 80% of all computers in china right at this moment have a virus. They're talking about 80% of the computers they sampled, they MAY have been infected (at one time). I'm sure in america the numbers pretty high too, there's just no statistics (yet). So here we go, according to ME, 90% of all computers I've ever fixed in America at one time had a virus.
I'm not supposed to tell anyone.. it told me that it should be our little secret.
I know americans who can get in quite a jiffy over love and pr0n too. And Brits. And Egyptians. and Chinese.
What's the point here? Would this have been modded +4 funny if you s/Chinese/Belgian or something else?
Blearf. Blearf, I say.
Of course! Crisi-tunity!
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
90% of US Women Love Bowling
According to a study commisioned by the American Bowling Alley Owners Federation, researches found that 90% of women love bowling. Researchers came to this conclusion by randomly questioning 40 women inside a bowling alley in Scranton, PA.
I don't know that this is about a language gap. I imagine 8 out of 10 Americans will open email labeled "nude pics of Brittney" as well.
"You're never ready, just less unprepared."
Become symantec virus software reseller in China...
-i@i-
I was in Vietnam over the summer. Vietnam is #1 in the word for software piracy, with 94%. They cram everything they can fit onto a cd and with that comes some extra stuff you didn't even pay for...I was not surprised when I scanned five cds to find 4 of the 5 containing at least a few virii.
Have computer viruses, then, become like the bacteria on our skin? -- As long as they're relatively benign and stay out of our blood streams, they can live on our skin all they want?
Or are they more like VD? -- Make sure you have current protection with you wherever you compute, otherwise sooner or later you're gonna catch the big one with the destructive payload.
"We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals." --The American President (20.1.2009)
I dunno but all those Chinese computers have viruses that screw up the displays - makes em all look like chicken scratch. I wonder ? Hmmmmm?
The article is unclear on whether or not 80% of the computers actually have viruses. Even the Slashdot post uses the word "touched", not "infected". Viruses come into contact with my computer all the time. I'd bet that at least 80% of the computers in America or Western Europe have been "touched" by a virus.
The best thing about a boolean is even if you are wrong, you are only off by a bit.
"a reliable source of today's date..."
They could quit referring to Outlook viruses like Klez and SirCam and ILOVEYOU...
Klez is not an "Outlook Virus" it can be executed in any Windows-based e-mail program.
Sircam is not an "Outlook Virus" it contains it's own SMTP engine and harvests its addresses from various files (such as .HTM) on the victim's hard drive.
VBS.LoveLetter does spread using the Outlook address book, though it can also spread via mIRC (though curiously I never hear it referred to as a "mIRC Virus").
I absolutely agree that we should strive for accurate information.
-Coach-
Perhaps the world's greatest tragedy is that ignorance is not impotence.
When I was in college in the mid-70s, a number of my fellow students from Taiwan and Hong Kong would bring pirated textbooks over with them, which typically had covers indicating they were cookbooks or written in Chinese or whatever; it reduced the attention of customs inspectors.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
the other 20% are macs... ha ha ha
If you gotta talk about "Goldmine", then the pot-of-gold ought to be located with those who can provide softwares which are immuned to virus attack, or at the least, can CONTAIN the damage done by virii to a minimum.
To this, may I suggest the various flavors of Unices - from Solaris to *BSD to Linux ?
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Back on topic, even the person that wrote that email would have an easier time spotting a virus in broken English than I would spotting a virus in perfect Chinese....
Murphy was an optimist.
I really hate signatures, but go to my website.
I'm not in favor of the Chinese government touching anything to do with technology, and if they thought that it was time to get involved in this epidemic, they would inevitably censor even more of the web in order to stop the infection rates. This case reminds me of the South African STD problem. where the uneducated allow themselves to be infected out of ignorance. The only way that the mass of china will become aware is if the government steps in. The only thing [the government] needs to do is a media blitz of public service announcements. Educate the public, and they will start to protect themselves. I'm sure that Computer Associates (InoculateIT), Network Associates (McAfee), and Symantic (Norton AntiVirus) would love to cover the cost of such education. Most, if not all, antiviral software is subscription based. And there is nobody happier to pay for a long-term contract like a mom & pop shop that didn't know anything about viruses, and then is made aware of what they stand to lose if they don't protect themselves. Yeah, answer to this is place "protect yourself" ads in every magazine, TV, and radio that circulate there. The government controls all of the media there anyways.
Maybe my answer is to simplistic, but education does make sense.
Maybe My answer is to simplistic, but education does make sence.