|
Oh Korea...
Disclaimer: Beyond basic programming, I am not well versed or in any means an expert in the technical aspects of networking and security. After reading about various sources, this is my interpretation of the issue… And forgive me for some of the horrendous MS paint images, too lazy to open up Illustrator and Indesign =(
Unless you have been living under a rock, woefully illiterate in technology or a developer, you probably would not be utilizing Internet Explorer for your internet needs as there are many fancier alternatives. But as you have seen via streams, for the folks in South Korea that is not the case… So why does this monoculture exist in a technology powerhouse with such extensive broadband infrastructure?
Here is my pie chart, everyone loves pie!
You jelly?
This all goes back to 1999 when the Electronic Financial Transaction Act was introduced requiring users to only use Internet Explorer for shopping, banking and other online transactions. This was due part to security concerns as the South Korean government considered 40-bit encryption too weak as the key can be cracked in a relatively short time phase with a computed brute force or specific algorithms.
Here you see my futile attempt to explain basic encryption
Shamelessly stolen from Google Images
However, during this period 128-bit SSL encryption(These days, 256-bit or more are available) was also near finalization in the United States but South Korea could not wait for its standardization and funded its own development of an encryption algorithm called SEED. This was tasked to KISA(Korea Information and Security Agency), an organization under the KCC or the U.S equivalent FCC(Federal Communications Commission).
SEED works as an Active X(Hmmm… Sounds familiar anyone?) controlled plugin in which is then tied to a digital certificate issued by the government which has the user’s personal information it in. As many of us has known over the years hearing Active X means malicious content and viruses because it was originally developed to run by default on IE so unknown to the user, they’re allowing sites to automatically install anything onto their PC, heaven for drive-by download attacks.
So obviously during the introduction of that law, the only browser on the market that can work properly with Active X was Internet Explorer, both products of Microsoft. However, during the Vista days Microsoft resolved that issue by requiring a user action for the Active X control to run. But since then IE still reigns supreme as the government struggles to change the legislation to adapt and allow transactions via other browsers because of outcries by major domestic financial institutions.
I would like to add that third-party Active-X plugins are available for other browsers but I highly doubt they are fully functional with official transactions in South Korea yet. And for pure Apple and Linux users in Korea, good luck.
edit: Additional information to clear things up... Korean users can browse the web with any browser of their liking but any e-transactions must be done on Internet Explorer + Active X due to SEED block cipher.
The main reason why South Korea still clings to this old method is because of financial reasons. Many companies and the government itself has to invest in a lot of money to update their infrastructure which then trickles down to the typical consumer. As SEED is seldom used elsewhere, one cannot fathom the shear scale of such a task. When Microsoft introduced the "User Action" update for Active-X it initially created more headaches as virtually every website that uses the plugin for encrypted transactions required an upgrade to Windows Vista or higher OS.
And next by April of next year Microsoft will pull the plug on Windows XP so the one-third of South Korea that still uses Internet Explorer 8 better get to the times. You think Microsoft had a substantial market in the States but in Korea it turned into a unintended de-facto monopoly.
|
this clears things up! thanks, very informative 
|
thanks for the read :D
but how in the eff...
|
I was reading about this somewhat recently, in the last three months, anyway.
Thanks for the post and I hope it starts a discussion, because I proably don't have a lot to add to it but I'd like to read more about it.
I hope things change and we see this thread go on for many more pages as they do (change for the better)!
|
TLADT24920 Posts
thanks for the good read. I knew SK used IE or at least recall reading about it but never knew the reason until this thread. Makes sense when you think about it and I'm sure we'll eventually see migration to other browsers once legislation is reworked and such
|
I dont say this to be mean, but the TL;DR (or Explanation for those who are technologically quasi-illiterate) would be:
IE was used because it handled a form of encryption that was needed at the time and they haven't finished establishing a new infrastructure? Is that right?
|
It's also a bit hard for them to let go of it because pretty much all korean websites were developed and tested for Internet Explorer.
|
This is so not new  Every sites of my company is IE-exclusive and while this sucks, I got to install like a dozen of security active-x/plugins before using. Every goddamn function (like mail, internet banking etc.) needs at least one plugin lol.
So yeah, it still feels kinda...secured
|
Doing something as simple as buying a 20 dollar item from a big-brand online store requires the user to download at least 3 seperate plugins. (and different payment methods will have different plugins)
As a result, public computers in private places tend to be bogged down with 100+ useless IE plugins and extra buttons, shiny things and useless whatevers.
|
ERMAGAWD!!!
I loved this thread, very informative, such information, wow.
+1 OP
XOXO
User was warned for this post
|
IE is still has a massive market, outside of korea as well, the pie chart is not all that suprising to me. Hell, when I started using other browsers, IE probably had a 99% marketshare in the west as well. Then Firefox came out, and afterwards, Chome. Now I hear IE has a far smaller market share, but considering companies, it's still massive. Most huge companies still only develop internally for IE. Their external sites might be optimized to work on chrome, firefox and safari, but their internal sites are probably not. Companies rely on active-X, on old browser standards, and old systems.
At my work, we are currently estimating how much is will cost for us to rewrite one of our bigger intranet sites to work on IE10 WITHOUT compatibility mode which isn't as extreme as making it work well on chrome and firefox, but it's a start (its currently made for IE9 WITH compatibility mode). We are talking at least 2 months of work at this point, but that's a high level estimate, it could well be higher. That's a pretty ridiculous cost, which is why IE is still so huge. People might switch browser weekly in private, but switching it for a big company with thousands of employees is risky and costly.
|
Tnx for the info. Didnt really think IE is still that used in the world, after reading many polls on different sites saying that chrome and firefox are some of the most used browsers nowadays with 30% or more market share each. I always thought IE is only good for downloading other browsers and never touched again after.
|
I'm part of the Firefox Master Race.
Best customization options. Best version of Adblock Plus. Greasemonkey is great (though Chrome also has TamperMonkey). I also use Flashgot+Free Download Manager and Flash Download Helper.
Anyone else here a part of the Firefox Master Race?
|
On January 22 2014 16:31 vidium wrote:
Tnx for the info. Didnt really think IE is still that used in the world, after reading many polls on different sites saying that chrome and firefox are some of the most used browsers nowadays with 30% or more market share each. I always thought IE is only good for downloading other browsers and never touched again after.
Actually IE is still used quite heavily, but depending which statistic you ask, you get quite different results. If you go for http://www.netmarketshare.com/ that's around 70% while http://gs.statcounter.com/ tracks it at 23% globally.
These statistics basically variy pretty much depending on what pages you track the usage. On TL there will be different ones that lets say amazon. At work I have clients whose websites still have ~ 20% IE8 & IE7 visitors alone while others have maybe 10% IE in general. And in companies where only certain software is allowed on computers there is a good chance that an IE is used.
|
It speaks itself when over a third of South Korean users are still on IE 8...
|
Active X. I'll never forget all the keyboard loggers, tokenizers, video coders and whatnot I got to pollute my pc with. It had a certain charm to it, I have to admit that.
|
hmm a very interesting read thank you
|
Super interesting. But if you go to Korea with your PC, you cannot use internet unless you install this silly plugins ?
Have they heard of https yet ?
|
Wow this is very interesting.
Thanks for the info.
|
On January 22 2014 19:56 hfsrj wrote:
Super interesting. But if you go to Korea with your PC, you cannot use internet unless you install this silly plugins ?
Have they heard of https yet ?
You can use internet fine, but you can probably not use most of the korean sites where security is important, like e-markets etc.
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/TjfTuQs.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/VX1show.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/2nZUlcK.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/MhtCKFI.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/gqv3OiT.jpg)
