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30,000 Internet Censors In China To Be Defeated By 3 Hackers In Canada?
from the the-battle-continues dept
Last month we had a story saying that China employed 30,000 people to police the internet and manage the filter that blocks out objectionable content. However, it looks like just three hackers in Canada are working on a way around that, with a new system that will help those in countries with limited internet access get around the digital blockades. This certainly isn't the first or only attempt to do so. A few years ago, we wrote about how the US government was funding a similar effort (yes, as American companies supplied much of the equipment that makes the original blockades work). While it's likely to be a continuous back-and-forth affair between censors and those looking for ways to free up the internet, the difference in size of the teams involved should make it clear that the effort to break down these walls is going to remain a lot less than the effort to build them up.
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Heh
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HA!!
And just to take a potshot at the old farts that cant be bothered to learn the internet that reside in congress. HEY WHEN YOU GETTING OUTTA THERE SO WE CAN HAVE SOME FOLKS THAT UNDERSTAND THE INTERNET WRITING LAWS FOR IT?!
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Re: HA!!
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Well Dorpus...
I bet pocket lint they actually have the attention span to make world news. You have to admit, It'd be damn funny if 3 hackers actually pulled this off!
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Re: Well Dorpus...
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Re: Re: Well Dorpus...
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Re: Re: Re: Well Dorpus...
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Re: Re: HA!!
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Re: Re: Re: HA!!
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Re: Re: HA!!
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Re: Re: Re: HA!!
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Re: HA!!
Also, these 3 hackers have not yet cracked anyhting, and it certainly wont be easy. A bit of an ignorant post.
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Oh and, they still won't score any Chinese girls. :P
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Actually...
And the biggest part in all censorship is self-censorship. People check what they're writing before posting in a forum, then the administrators of the website check it too to make sure they won't get in trouble.
The technological part of censorship is not the biggest problem.
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Eh...
The main thing with this program: it doesn't use public proxies. Public proxies usually aren't encrypted, so it's a matter of time until the censors catch on and block the server. With a private encrypted proxy the chances of the government finding out is next to nothing.
One has to wonder where this could lead too... Once one person in china has uncensored internet, do they allow their neighbors to use their computer as a proxy? Is it feasible that eventually all internet traffic in china will be through encrypted proxies in such a way that the government has no control over it?
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Re: Eh...
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Hmmm...
Where there's a will theres a Wei.
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Dorpus
I saw nothing in the article to indicate these 3 gentlemen are paranoid, or living in a fantasy world. Do you have something against these men in particular, or do you just stereotype all politically minded hackers the same way?
If Canada is "fanatically anti-American", why the hell did they follow us over to Iraq, and are getting their soldiers killed for us?
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Re: Dorpus
The only Canadian soldiers in Iraq are with the American military under exchange programs. Canada is in Afghanistan (having relieved Americans there) and are getting killed. They lost a senior diplomat recently.
A while back a Canadian sniper set a record by killing a Taliban at 2400+ yards.
It is likely that the work being done is actually being funded by either the US or Canadian secret service. To stop encrypted communications with a proxy, the Chinese will have to ban encrypted signals - they won't have to know what you're saying, just that it is encrypted. In fact, since encrypted signals can be distinguished digitally from lots of other traffic the use of an encrypted proxy may lead the Chinese authorities to dissidents much more easily than having 30,000 people sitting reading everyone's email.
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flagged as potential spam?
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Re: flagged as potential spam?
We use the spam filter from Askimet. It works mainly based on IP addresses, so there's something about where you're posting from that concerns it. Either way, we review the "caught" posts by hand, and allow them. So all of your comments eventually make it through.
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chances next to nothing!?
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re: aniti american sentiment
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Misses the point
However, the technology is pervasive. When you're there, things "look normal." That is, unless you've seen the full unfiltered Internet, and you are used to how it looks, you would have no idea that anything was wrong, other than reliablity being a bit of an issue. You do see criticism of the government, but enough of the debate is filtered so that you see 80% favorable and 20% unfavorable, and the unfavorable coverage tends to be from less reputable sources.
I'm all for this group's efforts, and for empowering free speech worldwide. But, I see little chance it will make a significant difference. The Chinese firewall is about framing the debate, and even if half of Chinese users adopted this software, the debate would still be seriously skewed.
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Don't Underestimate the Great Firewall
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Canadian
The major issues with this problem are:
Many encrypted proxies already exist, we have no need for another one.
The Chinese person to bypass the firewall has to have a friend/family in a free country.
The friend has to leave their computer on basically 24/7 (due to timezones), further increasing their inflated power bills.
If the Chinese person would happen to get caught using this proxy, they would be tortured/killed. Is that really worth it for a bit of free internet?
So really, the story should be something like this...
Three dudes ('hackers'?) in canada, claimed to be making a program to destroy the 'Great Firewall'; Some not-understanding news-person, grabbed the story, and ran with it, even though he/she had no idea what was going on. And finally, every other news site assumed that the original reporter actually understood, and brought the story to us.
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Triangle Boy
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Let's Hope it Lasts
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censor china
savvy either.
If the Chinese person would happen to get caught using this proxy, they would be tortured/killed. this Is really what a bit of free internet could do for the chineese
the australians are just goofy for tring to do the same thing , i hope a roo gets stuck up there
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Internal Auditor Training
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