Chinese Agency Will Blacklist And Police Mobile Apps

If mobile app developers thought getting past Apple's censors and bizarre policies was hard enough, now they have to contend with the Chinese government for vetting of their applications.

Wang Minghua, director general of the operations department of the National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team Coordination Center of China and secretary general of the network and information security working committee, revealed that CNCERT is formulating mobile Internet malware blacklist regulations and mobile Internet application self-discipline whitelist regulations.

The first batch of companies on the whitelist reportedly include Qihoo 360, Tencent, NQ Mobile, Baidu, Kingsoft, An Guan Jia, Lenovo, Trend Micro, Eversec, Rising, and Antiy.

CNCERT is a national network security emergency response organization under the leadership of Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China. Wang said China needs to proactively eliminate mobile malware, so CNCERT is formulating these regulations. Based on the blacklist, security manufacturers, telecom operators, and app stores will be able to block vicious software from the very beginning.

To this end, MIIT has launched two major platforms to identify bad apps: a mobile Internet malware public reportiung platform and an app store reporting platform. So far, 34 mainstream app stores have implemented regular app reports, and about seven million applications have been tested.

Wang also said CNCERT will guide and supervise the establishment and implementation of the whitelist and it has the final reviewing authority over the whitelist. The process of the whitelist will include registration, recommendation, examination, publication, filing for record, and supervision.

In addition, CNCERT will open a reporting channel. If the members on the whitelist are reported for violations, they will be removed from the list. If the violation is serious, they will not be allowed to join the whitelist again.