Not funny: 60% still using IE6 in South Korea
Posted by Percy Cabello on October 1st, 2009 • Tags:
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Long story short:

  • In the late nineties, the South Korean government wanted a strong encryption mechanism for Internet transactions. 128-bit SSL was not ready yet.
  • So they created their own mechanism, called it SEED, and implemented as a Netscape plugin and as an ActiveX control for Internet Explorer.
  • As Internet Explorer got 95% of the market, SK government felt it wasn’t worth updating the plugin, so businesses deployed their solutions relying on the ActiveX implementation of SEED. As a result, now 128-bit encrypted transactions like shopping and banking, can only be done on Internet Explorer. Preferably IE6, because newer IE versions tend to be more restrictive and complicated (read secure) for both business and users.
  • So everybody needs Windows to run IE, even Mac OS X and Linux users!

This is a sad example of what happens when the web is built on closed proprietary technology. In this extreme case, a whole country is now locked into a technology that is already a decade old.

You can read the complete article at Korean Times, pointed by Mozilla Japan’s Gen Kanai, who also described the situation and the consequences a few years ago.

Koreans are taking action: www.ie6nomore.kr

Comments
Ratcicle said on October 2, 2009, 1:57 am:

Now I got that why South Korea was in top-ten in World Threat Atlas.
South Korea the most user play online games, Some gamers still don’t care about security.

shaunkii said on October 2, 2009, 2:51 am:

The link to http://www.ie6nomore.kr doesn’t seem to be working.

Jake said on October 7, 2009, 5:48 pm:

Ratcicle “Now I got that why South Korea was in top-ten in World Threat Atlas” thats North Korea you ingorant fool

fred said on October 9, 2009, 10:49 pm:

why would they look at going to ie7, it sucks. And now firefox 3.5.3 is a lemon! so good luck to them.

Mohan said on October 11, 2009, 3:31 pm:

Seems like they are in a deadlock, and they need to fix that issue soon.

nitrofurano said on November 3, 2009, 6:38 am:

North Korea has one kind of dictatorship, and South Korea another one.

jors said on November 3, 2009, 10:03 am:

The url http://www.ie6nomore.kr/ works, but not the link, which is incorrect. Copy&paste it to your browser on the url box.