By
Kang Min Seong, a student at Chung Ang University. Thank you for sharing this
with us.
Translated
by Jiyoung Shin
Ahn
Cheol-soo, a former presidential candidate, suggested the “abolition of
government initiated authentication certificates” as one of his election
pledges in the field of Information and Technology. Its main issue is the abolition of the Active X authentication
system and allowance of industries’ autonomy in selecting the types of authentication
and security programs.
Due
to Ahn, other issues related to Active X have been brought forth to the
surface. After requesting relevant information, it was found that still a high
number of local governments websites is using Active X.
Active
X is a library that Microsoft (MS) established in order to expand their
Internet Explorer (IE). This technology enables to install programs that can be
operated in the browser using web-browser. However, since the installed program
has access to every resource within the system and can even update system files,
it has a high potential of bringing in various types of viruses and backdoors.
MS has stopped supporting this system due to increasing complaints about
its inconvenience and danger.
Although
Korea has a reputation as an IT power house, the domestic web environment seems
to be regressing from the global standard. Currently, Chrome, a new web-browser
of Google is encroaching on the global market and other web-browsers such as
Safari and Firefox are also increasing their market shares in the world. Even
MS has long been neglecting the IE’s library, Active X. Of course, the number
of IE users in Korea is also on decrease. But still the majority of websites
are established for IE.
Korea
Communications Commission (KCC) and the Ministry of Public Administration and
Security (MOPAS) enacted (second amendment) <E-government Compatibility
Guideline> to enhance the competitiveness of web service and internet users’ convenience.
Ensuring the compatibility of web browsers is clearly stated there.
The
article 4 of the guideline states that “when there is no restriction on
technologies, the service should be equally provided on more than 3 different
types of web browsers”. However, the service is not compatible with other web
browsers when Active X, which is only provided by IE, is used in establishing,
improving and operating websites.
Websites
of local governments also showed a rather high rate of Active X usage. After
requesting information concerning internet browsers when using websites (Institutions
that are not available –partly or entirely- without installing Active X), the
majority of the institutions showed a lack of related information. In addition,
some websites that have limited access with browsers other than IE were marked
as “entirely available”. (There were some institutions that only started
offering explanations when I pointed out the limited access to the content.)
Having requested the information to 16 institutions (Seoul, 6 Metropolitan
cities, 9 provinces), only 5 (Seoul, Gyeonggi, Daejeon, Busan, Jeju) provided
the information including the websites of their affiliated organizations. Below
you can find whether these five institutions use Active X or not and their
usage rate.
□ Use of Active X among 5 Local governments including their affiliated
organizations
|
Seoul |
Gyeonggi |
Daejeon |
Busan |
Jeju |
|
|
Without Active X -Websites partly/entirely not available |
15 |
60 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
|
Without Active X – Websites Available |
19 |
159 |
7 |
55 |
8 |
|
Total |
34 |
219 |
10 |
58 |
10 |
□ Use of Active X among local
governments that partly provided information
|
Gangwon |
Gyeongsang buk-do |
Chungcheong nam-do |
Incheon-si
Bupyeong-gu |
Incheon-si Ganghwa-gun |
Incheon-si Gyeyang-gu |
|
|
Problem |
Zoom in/ out not available Firefox
(Inc. Cyber Gangwon |
⓵I-Life
⓶Web-Gis |
3D |
Menus for reservation
– Venue rental
Tennis court application |
Limited |
Reservation and |
Is Active X really necessary?
One thing to notice is whether Active
X is really effective for the security and authentication. According to the
“Internet browser user survey” by OPENWEB, 1 out of 2 people experienced
computer viruses after installing Active X. Furthermore, more than 70% of the
respondents replied that they are concerned about the virus infection from Active
X.
Active X has a high potential
to be used as a pathway to distribute malignant code. Due to this, KCC
recommends not to use it. However, under the current domestic web environment,
the websites of local governments and their affiliated organizations, online
payment and banking are heavily restricted without installing Active X. Below
you can find the related information.
강민성,20082909,01042885022_정보공개청구_자료.zip