30,000 Internet Censors In China To Be Defeated By 3 Hackers In Canada?

from the the-battle-continues dept

Mon, May 8th 2006 2:11am — Mike Masnick

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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33 Comments

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dorpus, 8 May 2006 @ 3:13am

Heh
We're assuming these guys won't start getting followed around by the RCMP for causing trouble? Then their paranoid fantasies about men in black suits following them can come true.
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Exiled From the mainstream, 8 May 2006 @ 3:27am

HA!!
I find this funny for a multitude of reasons. The biggest being that people STILL think they can censor the internet, which in many ways transcends the national borders of the globe. The second biggest being that 3 (count them on your fingers folks 1, 2, 3!!!) hackers can easily pull down the efforts of 30,000 if they have enough know how and determination.

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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- dorpus, 8 May 2006 @ 3:35am
  
  Re: HA!!
  Or is the funny part that 3 guys think they can change the world, as if the Canadian government will help them? If Chinese agents find a way to do these guys in, then Canadian redcoats won't have a clue what to do, and the US will not lift a finger to help them -- payback for Canada's fanatical anti-Americanism.
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  - Exiled From the mainstream, 8 May 2006 @ 3:48am
    
    Well Dorpus...
    They'd get their 15 minutes of fame if they managed to put a hole in the great firewall of china. And I thought anti-americanism was the worlds fad lately! :P
    
    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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    - Anonymous Coward, 8 May 2006 @ 4:09am
      
      Re: Well Dorpus...
      Until China held a few executions (or even rumors of executions) to hedge the usage of these new liberating program. I'm not sure how many people are willing to give their life to find more crap on the net.
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      - dorpus, 8 May 2006 @ 4:13am
        
        Re: Re: Well Dorpus...
        China could always put pressure on the university by threatening to stop sending Chinese scholars there, so science at UT grinds to a halt. Then the university will quickly expel the students for "writing malicious software on university computing resources".
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        |333173|3|_||3, 8 May 2006 @ 5:26pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Well Dorpus...
        The students don't seem to have written it on Uni computers, so it is not the Uni's problem. The software is also not technically malicious, so they could also challenge expulsion in the courts.
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  - Michael Langford, 8 May 2006 @ 7:05am
    
    Re: Re: HA!!
    Yeah well, they aren't breaking any Canadian laws so they won't get arrested here, you see we don't make money from jailing up here, so we pretty much try to only put criminals in jail...
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    - Anonymous Coward, 8 May 2006 @ 8:42am
      
      Re: Re: Re: HA!!
      nice...
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  - buckykat, 8 May 2006 @ 2:55pm
    
    Re: Re: HA!!
    fanatical anti americanism? you don't even need a passport to go there. just because the canadian parliment doesn't obey every order the us flings out, doesn't mean they're anti american.
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    - |333173|3|_||3, 8 May 2006 @ 5:28pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: HA!!
      Unlike the Australian Parliament, that is.
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- the mainstream, 8 May 2006 @ 4:20pm
  
  Re: HA!!
  Wheres the third biggest reason? Also, apparently 30,000 censors can actually do a pretty good job of censoring the internet, especially when US corporations do their share to pitch in.
  
  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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dorpus, 8 May 2006 @ 4:09am

Yeah, assuming there is any substance to their claim, and it isn't the usual Canadian copycatting of existing methods.

Oh and, they still won't score any Chinese girls. :P
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Sha, 8 May 2006 @ 5:04am

Actually...
Those 30000 censors don't code filters or firewalls. Their job is more to monitor forums, blogs, or net cafes.
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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Anonymous Coward, 8 May 2006 @ 5:32am

Good
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Anonymous Coward, 8 May 2006 @ 5:34am

Eh...
As far as I can tell, all this is is a proxy that uses encryption. I'd be willing to bet there's already a lot of people in China using proxies.

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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- Anonymous Coward, 8 May 2006 @ 5:37pm
  
  Re: Eh...
  All the govt. has to do is to send off anyone who is downloading encrypted data from a souce which has not been approved to rediscover the joys of pesant labour by breaking rocks or something. ppl would soon stop using it.
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Ban Punster, 8 May 2006 @ 5:41am

Hmmm...
I guess they're trying to prove:

Where there's a will theres a Wei.
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Wolfger, 8 May 2006 @ 5:52am

Dorpus
Paranoid fantasies? Canada's fanatical anti-Americanism? WTF? I'd like to know if you have any basis for these whacked out statements, or if you simply have no credibility whatsoever.

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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- Anonymous Coward, 8 May 2006 @ 2:46pm
  
  Re: Dorpus
  If Canada is "fanatically anti-American", why the hell did they follow us over to Iraq, and are getting their soldiers killed for us?
  
  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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Wolfger, 8 May 2006 @ 5:55am

flagged as potential spam?
In the past week, I have tried to post a comment 3 times, and all 3 times I was "flagged as potential spam". I have never spammed this site, and I don't write posts that any halfway intelligent spam filter would flag, so what gives? Have I been put on a watch list for some reason? Is this simply the way Techdirt works now? Either way, it sucks.
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- Mike (profile), 8 May 2006 @ 11:59am
  
  Re: flagged as potential spam?
  In the past week, I have tried to post a comment 3 times, and all 3 times I was "flagged as potential spam". I have never spammed this site, and I don't write posts that any halfway intelligent spam filter would flag, so what gives? Have I been put on a watch list for some reason? Is this simply the way Techdirt works now? Either way, it sucks.
  
  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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Anonymous Coward, 8 May 2006 @ 6:37am

Personally I'd be glad if the chinese government got screwed over, sick of communist countries and countries that base everything around a cult or religion controlling what people can and can't do, that destroys the freedom section of human rights, it's like that country that wanted to kill a guy because he converted to Christianity...big woop so he didn't follow the crowd. Communism just doesn't work, I love the sound of it, I mean everybody having an equal share is great but it just doesn't work like that. What I hate most about the chinese government is the fact that whenever you talk to a Chinese person you have to watch what you say otherwise you could get them in trouble.
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Brandon Zylstra, 8 May 2006 @ 8:37am

chances next to nothing!?
what's to stop the government from just downloading the program and checking to see what private proxy it uses? They then just block that proxy.
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charlie potatoes, 8 May 2006 @ 9:30am

re: aniti american sentiment
fuck you, towel-head
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saleh, 8 May 2006 @ 10:15am

Misses the point
The concept of working-around the Chinese censorship is, in a lot of ways, silly. When I was in China, it was a trivial matter to bypass the Chinese firewalls (in my case, using stunnel to a proxy). The technology is not sophisticated.

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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Alex Hagen, 8 May 2006 @ 10:19am

Don't Underestimate the Great Firewall
All this hype is for this old idea? It's an encrypted proxy, nothing less and nothing more. I set up an encrypted proxy on my home machine once, for my dad who was living at the time in the United Arab Emerites, a country that also performs country wide filtering. They found it and blocked within 3 days. I am pretty sure the Great Firewall is just as, if not a lot more, effective than the U.A.E.'s offering. You are a fool if you think this won't get blocked just as fast.
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Bob Smith, 8 May 2006 @ 3:23pm

Canadian
Has much as I hate to say this against my fellow Canadians, all they appear to be doing is planning to build an encrypted proxy, which is hosted by a friendly person in a 'free' country.

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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Drew, 8 May 2006 @ 9:59pm

Triangle Boy
Anyone remember the Triangle Boy project ? Whatever happened to that ?
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China Law Blog, 10 May 2006 @ 9:59pm

Let's Hope it Lasts
Knowing China, it will make this work-around illegal. This won't stop it, but it will slow it down and instill fear.
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ghanglia, 20 Jun 2008 @ 3:37am

censor china
it only will take one person to defeat chinas effort to censor the internet and he/she doesn't need to be tech
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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Jeff, 28 May 2009 @ 6:22am

I have unfiltered access to any site from China using Freedur.com. This little proxy rocks. They offer free trial. Try it, you’ll like it.
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Internal Auditor Training, 12 Mar 2014 @ 1:02am

Internal Auditor Training
however what am i able to say� I put things off a whole lot and don't manage to get nearly anything done.
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