China swears to curb online phishing

BEIJING, CHINA: China's ten major search engines have agreed to put banks' official homepages at the top of search results in a bid to curb cyber scams, authorities said.

The move was jointly pushed by Ministry of Public Security, banking industry organizations and several commercial banks in response to growing public concerns over the safety of online accounts and transactions since 2010, a statement said.

Phishing attacks, or financial fraud schemes, are generally done through fraudulent websites that appear legitimate by using web addresses or log-in webpage designs similar to banks' official Internet banking service portals.

Phishing victims are often fooled by fraudulent links turned out by search engines, reported Xinhua. Upon entering such sites, customers are asked to verify their account information by entering usernames and passwords.

The first batch of financial institutions covered by this new precaution scheme includes five major state-owned banks and two financial organizations, the statement said.

Moreover, some search portals have added an official logo to each bank's legitimate link to make it "remarkably different" from unauthorized results.

A series of hacking cases this week stirred strong public concern.

Millions of personal details of subscribers to several websites, including CSDN, the  country's largest programmers' website, and popular online gaming and social networking sites, were leaked.

A police report Thursday said that applicants' information leaked from a government database in the southern province of Guangdong due to technical loopholes.