I was previously using Project Honey Pot’s http:BL in conjunction with Bad Behaviour WordPress plugin to control access to this blog. My intention was to restrict access from malicious spammers and content scrapers.
Unfortunately it seems that plenty of Cambodian IP addresses are on various blacklists and thus many legitimate users were blocked as well. This confirms my previous impression that a lot of Windows PCs in Cambodia are infested with malware (viruses, trojans, etc.). These PCs are in use by their ordinary users who do not know that their computer is performing malicious activities beyond their control.
One part of the problem is obviously the low overall IT skill level in Cambodia. The other problem is the widespread use of (pirated) Microsoft Windows products. Microsoft has a policy of not delivering security updates to pirated installations of their software. Thus Microsoft is actually enabling criminals to use other people’s computers to conduct crime. If their policy regarding serious security patches was different, there would be much less spam, botnets and other crime in the internet.
I would seriously recommend Khmers and other people in Cambodia to look at Linux and other alternatives for their PCs. Microsoft’s products have such a high price tag that purchasing original copies is not an option for most people here. Actually it is very difficult to even find a computer store in Cambodia which would sell any original Microsoft software. Also because Microsoft is world famous for producing broken, sub-standard, buggy software full of security vulnerabilities, it is in the best interests of the whole nation (or actually the whole world) to look at other alternatives.
I have disabled the http:BL functionality of the Bad Behaviour plugin for now to allow Cambodian Microsoft victims to access this blog again.