The Green Dam
The Chinese government recently moved to censor and filter websites that contain “pornography” and politically “sensitive” content. Whether or not having the application installed would be mandatory or voluntary is not clear. Initially the plan was to make usage of the application mandatory. But thanks to a threatened internet boycott on July 1st, the Chinese government backed down from the hardline position to support a more “liberalized” less draconian policy. Nevertheless, it is a move toward internet censorship.
The software includes code pirated from open source developers. So there is the hypocrisy factor here.
More importantly, the software contains “security vulnerabilities”: Anyone who has it installed on their computer will find that the websites they visit now have the ability to control their hard drives. I think that this is the real point of the Green Dam: To allow the state control of your hard drive, if you are a Chinese citizen. Look for this spyware to be available in the “Land of the Free” real soon.
Soon this story, like most, will evaporate from the blogosphere. Two or three years down the road, a Silicon Valley will develop an American version and they will know how to market it. They will market it as a security app for parents.
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June 23rd, 2009 at 8:15 am
I’ve been following this story closely (so has the EFF). It’s amusing that the Chinese government is really “concerned about pornography” all of a sudden. I’d be writing about this in my blog if I were writing about anything right now. I’m also disappointed to see “health care reform” turning into another big bonanza to the insurance companies.
You’re right on the money about the real purposes. This is about mandating an open backdoor into everybody’s computers, and keeping tabs on everything they do online. Hell, it could be a keylogger too. This is also a de facto ban on any operating systems that doesn’t run this mandated software.
In a way, the ability to do this has been here all along. Every version of Windows since Win95 OSR2 has had an NSA backdoor built into it, and pretty much everybody runs Windows over here.
Government software should always be open source, available to any individual or citizen to audit and compile themselves. We could start here with our voting machines.
Oh yeah, they stole code from CyberSitter, too.. and now the owners of that software suite are lobbying US computer manufacturers not to ship their product to China. Good luck, don’t hold your breath.
Didn’t Australia go through a mandated censor-ware scare not too long ago?
EFF: China’s Spy in the Home
NSA backdoor into Windows
June 25th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
The only problem from a government point of view would be to try censoring the keystrokes of about half a billion people 24*7, that itself would become a minor industry, and programmers generally find a way, like life
! controlling chaos is just a pipe dream of the power mongers, i guess. But we should always keep a careful eye on what we sign off, excellent article, thanks for sharing!