South Korea is stuck with Internet Explorer for online shopping because of security law

[RockSushi]

[QUOTE]SEOUL — South Korea is renowned for its digital innovation, with coast-to-coast broadband and a 4G LTE network that reaches into Seoul’s subway system. But this tech-savvy country is stuck in a time warp in one way: its slavish dependence on Internet Explorer.

For South Koreans who use other browsers such as Chrome or Safari, online shopping often begins with a pop-up notice warning that they might not be able to buy what they came for.

“Purchases can only be made through Internet Explorer,” says one such message on the Web site of Asiana Airlines, one of South Korea’s two major carriers.

“Internet Explorer has bugs. It freezes. It requires all these annoying updates,” said Lee Dong-won, a 35-year-old businessman.

“But everybody I know uses it,” said Seo Yeon-ho, a 25-year-old design student.
[/QUOTE]

The law:
[QUOTE]
To reassure South Korean customers, the government created its own system to authenticate the identities of online buyers. To make purchases, shoppers had to supply their names and social security numbers and apply for government-issued “digital certificates,” which they could present to sellers as proof of ID. The whole process took just a few clicks.

But the back-and-forth was technologically complicated, and it came with a catch: It required a piece of additional software, or “plugin,” known as ActiveX — which is also made by Microsoft and worked in tandem only with Internet Explorer.

[B]That system, implemented in 1999, remains largely in place today.[/B]
[/QUOTE]
This is so BS.

[url]http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/due-to-security-law-south-korea-is-stuck-with-internet-explorer-for-online-shopping/2013/11/03/ffd2528a-3eff-11e3-b028-de922d7a3f47_story_1.html[/url]

[vlad]

what

[Maxumym]

But isn't IE 11 sorta decent?

[RockSushi]

[QUOTE=maxumym;42765176]But isn't IE 11 sorta decent?[/QUOTE]

But saying that IE should be the only browser to use while buying stuff on internet is BS.

[BuffaloBill]

IE itself: Decent.
Forcing IE because of outdated bollocks like this: Retarded.

[Rangergxi]

[QUOTE=maxumym;42765176]But isn't IE 11 sorta decent?[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE]“Internet Explorer has bugs. It freezes. It requires all these annoying updates,” said Lee Dong-won, a 35-year-old businessman.[/QUOTE]

I thought everybody hated IE.

[RockSushi]

[QUOTE=Rangergxi;42765252]I thought everybody hated IE.[/QUOTE]

IE itself is pretty good. IE6 was shit. IE7 was a bit better, but not much. All the others IEs have been getting better and better.

[carcarcargo]

[QUOTE=Rangergxi;42765252]I thought everybody hated IE.[/QUOTE]
From what I've heard it's not as bad as it was, but I still refuse to use it.

[pr00ch]

They are literally worse than their northern neighbors.

[danharibo]

IE is terrible. forcing all online trade to use some proprietary software sounds so backwards.

[Jsm]

The actual system [I]seems[/I] like a sensible idea. Shame its stuck in the 90s.

[Elecbullet]

Wasn't this the country with the most usage of Internet Explorer 6?

[snookypookums]

[QUOTE=Jsm;42765330]The actual system [I]seems[/I] like a sensible idea. Shame its stuck in the 90s.[/QUOTE]

I'm not sure - putting all your faith in a government system like that seems pretty risky if it were compromised.

[Worldwaker]

From the way this sounds to me, Microsoft bribed some officials a decade or so ago and it's now just coming to fruition. Honestly, there's no other sane reason to base your entire E-economy on one company/program unless there's some sort of major kickback.

[Dr. Fishtastic]

[QUOTE=Elecbullet;42765355]Wasn't this the country with the most usage of Internet Explorer 6?[/QUOTE]

No, that would be China and India

[A_Pigeon]

It's an ingenious system. Shot execution

[editline]5th November 2013[/editline]

[QUOTE=Worldwaker;42765629]From the way this sounds to me, Microsoft bribed some officials a decade or so ago and it's now just coming to fruition. Honestly, there's no other sane reason to base your entire E-economy on one company/program unless there's some sort of major kickback.[/QUOTE]

Umm no didn't you read the article?

The system is a sort of buyer protection thing run by the government. It just means that you need a license to sell online so that if you scam you are easier to track down

[Johnny Guitar]

just rename firefox to internet explorer like I did on my grandmothers computer

[Cakebatyr]

[QUOTE=Johnny Guitar;42766112]just rename firefox to internet explorer like I did on my grandmothers computer[/QUOTE]

I did this too...

[Johnny Guitar]

[QUOTE=Cakebatyr;42766627]I did this too...[/QUOTE]

my dad just taught me to use firefox waayyy back when, i can pretty much thank him for everything I know about computers n shit, not for much else to be honest..

[cdr248]

I weep for thee.

[Kimr]

I ordered stuff in chrome once, it burned down my house.

[Jsm]

[QUOTE=snookypookums;42765385]I'm not sure - putting all your faith in a government system like that seems pretty risky if it were compromised.[/QUOTE]

That's why I said the system seems good, if it was going to be in use properly thought it would need many independent bodies to verify people and not just one. In the same way that there isn't just one organisation that hands out SSL certificates.

[Tamschi]

[QUOTE=Jsm;42767132]That's why I said the system seems good, if it was going to be in use properly thought it would need many independent bodies to verify people and not just one. In the same way that there isn't just one organisation that hands out SSL certificates.[/QUOTE]

More organizations make a system like this weaker though, at least in a tree structure like with SSL certs. That's why you get rogue CAs once in a while.

Using derived certs for signing is still a good idea, that way they can just require a few users to update their credentials if one is compromised. If the root cert's compromised they'd still need to give everyone a new one but I suppose they have that in a secure offline facility somewhere.

[editline]5th November 2013[/editline]

This is really not much different from what Germany offers with the electronic signing functions for IDs. It's probably the best option for online ID proofs, they just need to replace it with an open interface so alternative plugins can be developed.

There is an issue with how trusted that software is and whether malware can steal the certificate though, so a physical key like an electronic state ID is much more secure because the key can never be retrieved from such a device without opening it up.

[Trogdon]

Force them to use IE6 and yahoo toolbars

[Deunan]

[QUOTE={TFS} Rock Su;42765201]But saying that IE should be the only browser to use while buying stuff on internet is BS.[/QUOTE]

This is SK we're talking about. Aka the country with some of the most draconic online laws ever and with one of the worst connections leading outside of the nation.

It doesn't surprise me in the slightest they have a plugin system in work which hasn't been signigicantly updated since the mid 2ks and the reasons it works in modern versions of IE is probably because IE is fairly backwards compatible to this day.