Chinese Virus Wins the Space Race
Posted on August 28, 2008
Filed Under China Hackers, China Internet, China Online Games, Malware, Security | 1 Comment
vnunet reports:
A computer virus has made it onto the International Space Station (ISS), but Nasa says there is no danger to critical systems.
Nasa has confirmed that a computer on the ISS has been infected by the Gammima.AG. virus, which tries to steal login names and passwords to popular online games like Maple Story, HuangYi Online and Talesweaver.
It is not yet known how the virus got on board but the likely culprit is a USB drive taken up by one of the astronauts. All data traffic streamed direct to the station comes from Nasa uplink stations and is heavily screened before being sent into orbit.
I call for an American virus to be on the moon in ten years.
Symantec’s Gammima description.
Go When You Can, Not When You Have To
Posted on August 27, 2008
Filed Under China Hackers, China Internet, Security | Leave a Comment
Pacific Epoch reports:
A hacker infiltrated Tsinghua University’s online news channel on August 24 to post an article under the name of Tsinghua University president Gu Binglin criticizing Chinese universities for “pissing in the minds of students”, reports xinhuanet.com. Tsinghua announced the attack the same day, dispelling any doubts that Gu would use such “foul” language to address the nation’s higher education system.
Tsinghua is one of China’s most prestigious universities, perhaps its most prestigious technical university.
Potty talk is not encouraged.
Suing Microsoft: All Together Now
Posted on August 27, 2008
Filed Under China Business, China Law | Leave a Comment
The South China Morning Post reports:
A mainland competitor of Microsoft Corp is urging a united front against the world’s largest software company for alleged monopolistic practices in the country.
Evermore Software, a developer of a productivity application suite that competes with Microsoft Office, wants to help a Beijing-based lawyer instigate a government probe into the United States company’s alleged anti-competitive business dealings.
“United front” isn’t the most inspiring objective, at least in terms of 20th century Chinese history. Anyways, Evermore is looking for a bigger partner:
An anti-monopoly activist, Mr Dong sent separate letters to the Ministry of Commerce, the National Development and Reform Commission and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce. In the letter - sent July 31, the day before the anti-monopoly law took effect - he asked the Beijing authorities to fine Microsoft US$1 billion for alleged monopolistic practices.
“It will be a huge project to collect the evidence that can prove Microsoft is monopolising the mainland’s PC software market, so it would be best to leave that job to the government,” said Mr Tsao.
He said he did not personally know Mr Dong, but he was keen to support government action against Microsoft.
There’s still some confusion as to what is exactly happening with this:
The Legal Daily reported that the Ministry of Commerce had accepted the complaint from the lawyer and that an investigation was expected.
A Microsoft spokeswoman in Hong Kong said: “Microsoft is not aware of an investigation by the Ministry of Commerce or other anti-monopoly law agencies at this time.”
And what if it does happen?
Wang Weiguo, dean of the school of civil, commercial and economic law at China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing, said an anti-monopoly lawsuit against Microsoft on the mainland would have a high likelihood of success.
“From a legal point of view, it should not be a problem to prove that Microsoft has operated as a monopoly,” Mr Wang said. “Beijing may file a lawsuit if Microsoft has really stifled the scientific innovation potential of smaller Chinese software firms.”
Microsoft has also invested, literally, hundreds of millions of dollars in Chinese software firms. I wonder if that will enter into the equation.
The biggest problem is not the lawsuit, I have no idea as to its merits or the statues by which it will be judged, but the opacity of the whole thing. Stay tuned.
E-House: CRICkey!
Posted on August 26, 2008
Filed Under China Business | Leave a Comment
Pacific Epoch reports:
Shanghai-based real estate services company E-House (China) Holdings Limited (NYSE: EJ) reported second quarter revenues of $43 million, up 79% year-on-year, before market open on Wednesday. Net income was $11.7 million, up 85% from the year-ago period.
Primary real estate agency services brought in $28.3 million of E-House revenue, increasing 38% from a year ago, while real estate consulting and information services increased from $1.2 million in the second quarter of 2007 to $11.2 million.
More from their investor relations page:
Revenues from real estate consulting and information services were $11.2 million for the second quarter of 2008, a substantial increase from $1.2 million for the same quarter in 2007. For the first half of 2008, revenues from real estate consulting and information services were $19.5 million, a substantial increase from $2.6 million for the same period in 2007. The increase was primarily due to substantial consulting revenue derived from strategic arrangements the Company entered into with major developers covering multiple cities and projects as well as an increase in the number of consulting projects completed for other developers.
They have a database, called CRIC, that they fill with all the data they cull from their real estate business. It’s a gold mine of data on the property markets they are active in and is just the sort of real market data that developers need. Smart move to monetize it.
Microsoft Makes Ketchup
Posted on August 26, 2008
Filed Under China Business, China Internet, China Law, Software Piracy | Leave a Comment
China Tech News reports:
Hong Lei, the webmaster of Chinese download website Tomatolei.com and writer of Windows XP Tomato Edition, reportedly has been taken into custody by the Suzhou Public Security Bureau.
Tomatolei.com was founded in 2003 and offers the download of the latest Windows XP Tomato Edition and also other useful software, as well as online forums, blogs and ringtone services. Several days after Hong’s arrest last week, Microsoft China responded to China media that it has in the past requested the National Copyright Administration and the Ministry of Public Security, together with some other software corporations, to investigate software piracy on Tomatolei.com.
Soon after the news came out in local media, other BBS and Internet forums that are similar with Tomatolei.com have removed contents about operating systems. Various estimates put bootleg Microsoft operating systems at up to 70% of the total installed base in China.
With the persistent rumors of an anti-monopoly investigation in the works, it’s good to see that Microsoft’s lawyers have the time to kill the chicken to scare the monkeys (or is it killing the monkey to scare the chickens? I can never remember). In any case, this may have scared people for a while, but it will blow over.
The question is did the PSB and the Copyright folks do this on their own, or after repeated promptings from Microsoft and other victims? It’d be handy for other vendors to know what degree of wheedling and nagging are required to get something done.
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