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Why Internet Explorer Still Dominates South Korea.

Posted by timothy on from the stuck-in-a-rut dept.

New submitter bmurray7 writes "You might think that the country that has the fastest average home internet speeds would be a first adapter of modern browsers. Instead, as the Washington Post reports, a payment processing security standard forces most South Koreans to rely upon Internet Explorer for online shopping. Since the standard uses a unique encryption algorithm, an ActiveX control is required to complete online purchases. As a result, many internet users are in the habit of approving all AtivceX control prompts, potentially exposing them to malware."

3 of 218 comments (clear)

  1. Macs? Linux? by MightyYar · · Score: 4, Interesting

    From TFA:

    But those with Apple computers — for which IE isn’t available — have it harder. Some go to Internet cafes. Some rely on their office desktops. Some dash into hotel business centers. Some hold on to their old computers and boot them up when it’s time to make purchases. Still others depend on a secret weapon called Boot Camp, a software program that allows a Mac to run Windows.

    Holy crap!

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    W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
  2. SEED in Flash, Java, JS, NPAPI, or PPAPI by tepples · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Why hasn't the SEED cipher (RFC 4269) been reimplemented in Flash, Java, JavaScript, native code using an NPAPI plug-in (Netscape's counterpart to ActiveX, now used by Firefox), or native code using a PPAPI plug-in (Chrome's counterpart to ActiveX)? Without any chance of support for ActiveX on mobile phones or ARM-powered tablets, I'd guess it'd have to be.

  3. "Super Size Me" says innocent Koreans to M$ by globaljustin · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You're wrong about Korean culture...

    Well, partially wrong. They built their IT infrastructure based on the *best* available at the time: Microsoft

    Blame Microsoft for making shitty products that lock-in users (and whole countries) to an inefficient half-assed software system.

    caveat emptor? sure...but at some point you have to acknowledge that they culpability can't rest only on the consumer....M$ parasitic system design was/is truly evil

    If you want to fault Korean culture, fault them for being too trusting of the USA in general....poor people actually take what we say at face value.

    I lived there for 1 year...I know the ass-backwards way they sometimes adapt new technology...but this isn't that...the aren't inherently inefficient as a culture...they showed us what happens when a country actually does what M$ suggests...

    Sort of like a 'Super Size Me' kind of project only with IT infrastructure for a whole country not fast food

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    Thank you Dave Raggett