VietNamNet Bridge – When accessing Gmail.vn, Vietnamese
Internet users were so surprised when they were led to a website of Baidu,
China’s biggest Internet service firm.
Instead of a Gmail box to appear
on the screen, Vietnamese Internet users were led to a quite new address
vn.hao123.com – a website directory service of Baidu.
A lot of readers called to
editorial boards complaining that they could not access to gmail.vn, because
when they typed the words, they were automatically driven to a service launched
into the market by Chinese Baidu last June.
Dan tri newspaper has found out
that the Gmail.vn domain name belongs to the Kien Cuong International Joint
Stock Company, headquartered in Hanoi. The domain name was registered in 2006
and has expired since August 16.
However, though the domain name
has expired, one would see that the domain name is still leading to the server
owned by Kien Cuong Company (the Gmail.vn has the same IP address with the
domain name of Kien Cuong company’s homepage).
As such, Dan tri has affirmed
that the company is still holding the domain name. The latest update of the
domain name was reportedly made on August 18.
There is a noteworthy thing is
that when accessing to the domain name Gmail.vn, instead of being led to the
homepage of Hao123 service of Baidu, the domain name would indicate to the
website with the link vn.hao123.com/tmvn.html. Internet users have made a wild
guess that “tmvn” could be the abbreviation of “ten mien Vietnam” (Vietnamese
domain names).
Therefore, it is very likely that
Baidu holds the right to control the Gmail.vn domain name.
GenK has also cited domestic
sources as saying if a process of transferring the ownership of Gmail.vn from
Kien Cuong to Baidu is being carried out.
A member of HVA, considered the
biggest security forum in Vietnam, said Hao123, the software to create the
shortcut of the website on users’ desktops contains the risk of opening the
backdoor allowing hackers to penetrate and hijack users’ computers.
Prior to that, a similar problem
had also been found with TTPLayer, a music listening software of Baidu. The
software piece allows interfering automatically into the users’ computers to
install unwanted applications, containing the risks of opening the backdoor to
hackers.
An executive of Kien Cuong
Company, in the meeting with Dan tri reporters, admitted that Kien Cuong owns
the domain name Gmail.vn. However, the company declined to make comments about
the information about the domain name.
The name “Baidu” has become more
popular to Vietnamese some months ago, when the Internet users’ community
warned about the existence of a Chinese social network, which was believed to
be a threat to Vietnamese social networks. Information technology experts have
voiced their concerns about the latent risks to be caused by the Chinese social
network.
An expert said Gmail.vn is really
a “special case”, because Google has been well known for its strict management
over the domain names relating to the brand.
In May 2012, Google revoked 750
domain names relating to the brand. Prior to that, Google had made registration
to obtain the important domain names such as Youtube, Gmail, and the domain
names with the phrases of words similar with the name of Google.
Experts have warned that the
automatic misleading to a Chinese service website could be a danger if the
website is redirected to a forged website with the interface similar to Gmail’s
while users’ passwords may be stolen.
Compiled by Thu Uyen
Business & Investment Opportunities
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