----- Forwarded message from Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> ----- From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2006 17:27:03 -0800 To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Chinese Censors Of Internet Face 'Hacktivists' in U.S. X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.746.2) Reply-To: dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [Note: This item comes from friend John McMullen. DLH] >From: "John F. McMullen" <observer@xxxxxxxxxxx> >Date: February 13, 2006 3:50:53 PM PST >To: "johnmac's living room" <johnmacsgroup@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> >Cc: Dave Farber <farber@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Dewayne Hendricks ><dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> >Subject: Chinese Censors Of Internet Face 'Hacktivists' in U.S. > >From the Wall Street Journal -- <http://online.wsj.com/article/ >SB113979965346572150.html?mod=home_page_one_us> > >Chinese Censors Of Internet Face 'Hacktivists' in U.S. >Programs Like Freegate, Built By Expatriate Bill Xia, >Keep the Web World-Wide Teenager Gets His Wikipedia >By GEOFFREY A. FOWLER > >Surfing the Web last fall, a Chinese high-school student who calls >himself Zivn noticed something missing. It was Wikipedia, an online >encyclopedia that accepts contributions or edits from users, and >that he himself had contributed to. > >The Chinese government, in October, had added Wikipedia to a list >of Web sites and phrases it blocks from Internet users. For Zivn, >trying to surf this and many other Web sites, including the BBC's >Chinese-language news service, brought just an error message. But >the 17-year-old had loved the way those sites helped him put >China's official pronouncements in perspective. "There were so many >lies among the facts, and I could not find where the truth is," he >writes in an instant-message interview. > >Then some friends told him where to find Freegate, a software >program that thwarts the Chinese government's vast system to limit >what its citizens see. Freegate -- by connecting computers inside >of China to servers in the U.S. -- enables Zivn and others to keep >reading and writing to Wikipedia and countless other Web sites. > > >Behind Freegate is a North Carolina-based Chinese hacker named Bill >Xia. He calls it his red pill, a reference to the drug in the >"Matrix" movies that vaulted unconscious captives of a totalitarian >regime into the real world. Mr. Xia likes to refer to the >villainous Agent Smith from the Matrix films, noting that the >digital bad guy in sunglasses "guards the Matrix like China's >Public Security Bureau guards the Internet." > >Roughly a dozen Chinese government agencies employ thousands of Web >censors, Internet cafe police and computers that constantly screen >traffic for forbidden content and sources -- a barrier often called >the Great Firewall of China. Type, say, "media censorship by China" >into emails, chats or Web logs, and the messages never arrive. > >Even with this extensive censorship, Chinese are getting vast >amounts of information electronically that they never would have >found a decade ago. The growth of the Internet in China -- to an >estimated 111 million users -- was one reason the authorities, >after a week's silence, ultimately had to acknowledge a disastrous >toxic spill in a river late last year. But the government recently >has redoubled its efforts to narrow the Net's reach on sensitive >matters. > >It has required all bloggers, or writers of Web logs, to register. >At the end of last year 15 Internet writers were in jail in China, >according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York >group. China also has gotten some U.S. Internet companies to limit >the search results they provide or the discussions they host on >their Chinese services. A tiny firm Mr. Xia set up to provide and >maintain Freegate had to lobby computer-security companies such as >Symantec Corp., of Cupertino, Calif., not to treat it as a virus. > >In response to China's crackdown, and to restrictions in many >Middle Eastern countries as well, a small army has been mustered to >defeat them. "Hacktivists," they call themselves. > >Bennett Haselton, a security consultant and former Microsoft >programmer, has developed a system called the Circumventor. It >connects volunteers around the world with Web users in China and >the Middle East so they can use their hosts' personal computers to >read forbidden sites. > >Susan Stevens, a Las Vegas graphic designer, belongs to an "adopt a >blog" program. She has adopted a Chinese blogger by using her own >server in the U.S. to broadcast his very personal musings on >religion to the world. She has never left the U.S., but "this is >where technology excels," she says. "We don't have to have anything >in common. We barely have to speak the same language." > >In Boston, computer scientist Roger Dingledine tends to Tor, a >modified version of a U.S. Naval Research Laboratory project, which >disguises the identities of Chinese Web surfers by sending messages >through several layers of hosts to obscure their path. In addition >to the Department of Defense, Mr. Dingledine had also received >funding from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit group >that supports free speech online. > >Freegate has advantages over some of its peers. As the product of >ethnically Chinese programmers, it uses the language and fits the >culture. It is a simple and small program, whose file size of just >137 kilobytes helps make it easy to store in an email program and >pass along on a portable memory drive. > >Mr. Xia says about 100,000 users a day use Freegate or two other >censorship-defeating systems he helped to create. It is impossible >to confirm that claim, but Freegate and similar programs from >others, called UltraReach and Garden Networks, are becoming a part >of the surfing habits of China's Internet elite in universities, >cafes and newsrooms. > >A Big Booster > >Freegate has a big booster in Falun Gong, the spiritual group China >banned in 1999 as subversive. It is a practice of meditations and >breathing exercises based on moralistic teachings by its founder, >Li Hongzhi. Chinese expatriates -- marrying U.S. free-speech >politics with protests over persecution of Falun Gong practitioners >in China -- have focused their energy on breaking China's >censorship systems. They have nurtured the work of Mr. Xia, himself >a Falun Gong follower, and several other programmers > >Freegate also gets a financial boost from the U.S. government. >Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, part of the federal >government's Broadcasting Board of Governors, pay Mr. Xia and >others to send out emails featuring links to their stories. > >Kenneth Berman, manager of the anticensorship office of the board's >International Broadcasting Bureau, declines to say how much it >compensates Mr. Xia's company. He says the bureau pays less than $5 >million a year to companies to help combat Internet censorship >abroad, especially in China and Iran. > >"Our policy is to allow individuals to get anything they want, when >they want," Mr. Berman says. "Bill and his techniques help us do >that." > >Human Rights in China, a New York nonprofit group funded by >individuals and charities founded by Chinese scientists and >scholars in 1989, also helps fund Mr. Xia's enterprise, which runs >on a budget of about $1 million a year, and pays it to send out >emails. > >The resources behind Freegate and others hacktivists could increase >if Congress revives a bill to create an Office of Global Internet >Freedom. U.S. Internet companies have drawn strong criticism in >Congress for compliance with Chinese Web restriction, and hearings >on their activities are set for Wednesday. Microsoft Corp., >Redmond, Wash., Google Inc., Mountain View, Calif., and Yahoo Inc., >Sunnyvale, Calif., all say that they abide by local laws. >Microsoft's general counsel said this month that the software giant >shuts down personal blogs only if it receives a "legally binding >notice from a government." > >Several Chinese agencies with jurisdiction over the Internet, >including the ministries of Public Security, State Security, and >Information Industry, didn't respond to faxed questions about >Internet filtering. The State Council Information Office said the >government would hold a news conference to address "Internet >security" issues early this week. It didn't respond to specific >questions. A position paper issued in 2000 by the National People's >Congress said it is a criminal offense to use the Internet to >"incite subversion," to "divulge state secrets" or to "organize >cults." The paper said the laws were needed "to promote the good >and eliminate the bad, encourage the healthy development of the >Internet [and] safeguard the security of the State and the public >interest." > >It is this attitude that drives Mr. Xia's counterattack. Moving to >the U.S. a decade ago to begin graduate studies in physics, he >says, he never imagined becoming either a dissident or a >programmer. Slowly, he became more uncomfortable with China's >restriction of public discourse. In the U.S., he watched taped >footage of the 1989 Tiananmen Square assault on protesters. > >Mr. Xia says he taught himself computer science out of textbooks >and in 2002 set up a small company called Dynamic Internet >Technology Inc., hiring 10 people to help send out emails for such >clients as Voice of America. He says he takes no salary, living a >modest life off his savings and his wife's earnings. > >Often working alone at his computer until 3 a.m., Mr. Xia lives >like a secret agent, communicating with a small team of volunteer >programmers across North America over secure email or coded phone >calls. He combs his house with a device to detect the loose radio >waves of bugging devices. In his 30s, Mr. Xia asked that the city >in which he lives and works not be disclosed so he can maintain a >low profile. > >The programmer says he dashes to his computer as soon as he wakes >up each morning, to make sure his system is still intact. He keeps >a raft of programs running on his oversize flat-screen monitor, >testing Freegate through a dozen different Web browsers and instant- >message and chat programs. > >Freegate works by constantly changing the address of its U.S. >servers so that China can't block the connection, and users like >Zivn, the 17-year-old, can read and write at will. Zivn says he >uses Freegate three to four times a week to read domestic and >international news. Besides the BBC site he frequents Radio Free >Asia and the Epoch Times, a newspaper that champions Falun Gong. >All have Chinese-language news services normally blocked by China's >firewall. > >Zivn says he isn't a member of Falun Gong and describes his >political slant as "neutral." He says he has read about North >Korean leader Kim Jong Il's recent secret visit to China and the >closure of a liberal Chinese magazine called Freezing Point. He >says he has copied some foreign news reports onto his personal >blog, which is available inside China and periodically gets blocked >itself. > >One user, who describes himself online as a 22-year-old who works >in Chinese media, praises the software but adds that its use is >"limited to a small group of people who are knowledgeable about >computers and the Internet." Most Chinese, he says, "have not >realized the harmful effects from network blocking." China's >Internet control system, called Golden Shield, doesn't aim for >complete control over information but rather to discover and plug >major breaches in the firewall. > >Nor can Freegate prevent self-censorship. Many Chinese surfers and >bloggers, having a sense of the forbidden words and topics, check >themselves before they cross the line. > >Then, too, many Chinese are as frivolous in their Internet use as >anyone else. Most of China's estimated 33 million bloggers write >about entertainment, fashion and such, not the free-speech or >police crackdowns. Still, Mr. Xia says he sees a rise in Freegate >traffic after events such as democracy protests or corruption >scandals, which the state-controlled press doesn't cover. > >Freegate's Web site supports an effort by Falun Gong's Epoch Times >to get Chinese citizens who belong to the Communist Party to >renounce their membership, and the paper claims nearly eight >million have signed a petition doing so. Many did so through >Freegate, Mr. Xia says. > >Mr. Xia says he gets a mountain of feedback. He convinced Symantec >not to treat Freegate as a virus. "The users are not technical. >They just say, 'It doesn't work!' and we have to ask them a lot of >questions" to resolve problems, Mr. Xia says. He politely declines >the help of volunteers inside China, fearing that they might be >government spies or that they would be punished if discovered. > >Getting Tips > >Occasionally, he says, he gets tips from Chinese who say they have >been given the job of maintaining the Internet restrictions. "One >guy told us, 'Sorry, I participated in some efforts to block your >software. I think it is not going to work in a few days,' " Mr. Xia >says. "China may have many people working on the firewall, but for >them it is just a job." > >[snip] >Write to Geoffrey A. Fowler at geoffrey.fowler@xxxxxxx Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com> ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org";>leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE
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