A South Korean presidential candidate is promising to get rid of
encryption technology that ties South Korean Internet users to a single
web browser - Microsoft's Internet Explorer - for online transactions.
Ahn
Cheol-soo, a popular independent presidential candidate, said companies
will be free to choose what online security technology they use if he
wins the December election.
Voters welcomed the pledge to end the
mandatory use of government-designated online certificates for Internet
banking and shopping.
The existing system based on 'Active X'
technology has been criticized for limiting choice of web browsers and
computer operating systems and slowing down computers.
Ahn said
that South Korea's unique certificate system has isolated its technology
industry from the rest of the world and made web browsing less
convenient.