China’s government departments are sticking to their guns, saying that the Chinese people need guided internet access, and that companies operating in China need to abide by local laws.
Read the update and summary of past events here
I nitpick on some of the article’s sarcasm here
The internet in China has always had its share of blacklisted sites, blocking out undesirable sources of information from the average citizen. The internet is growing at such a fast pace, with new sites added every day, that blacklists are becoming more and more difficult to manage. Now the way forward seems to be to whitelist the entire web.
China has started scanning text messages for inappropriate content representing the latest move in the country’s increasing censorship. Read more at the telegraph.co.uk.
Users on Google.cn’s image search can now see the iconic picture of Tank Man, among other images from the massacre in the Beijing square in 1989 – just as users on Google’s other country portals, such as Google.co.uk, can. Read more at MailOnline.
Things are getting interesting following Google’s statement to stop censorship on Google search results in China ….
Clinton has made a brief statement “We have been briefed by Google on these allegations, which raise very serious concerns and questions. We look to the Chinese government for an explanation. The ability to operate with confidence in cyberspace is critical in a modern society and economy. I will be giving an address next week on the centrality of Internet freedom in the 21st century, and we will have further comment on this matter as the facts become clear.”
Google Enterprise president Dave Girouard stresses that the attack was “not an assault on cloud computing” and “we believe our customer cloud-based data remains secure.” It is unusual for corporations to disclose such attackzs precisely because of the uncertainty they might fuel among customers, but Google says it is opening up “because we are committed to transparency, accountability, and maintaining your trust.”
Following my previous post, and understanding Google’s sudden decision… or maybe not so sudden….
“The decision wasn’t made in a vacuum, but rather came after years of increasing cyberattacks from the Chinese mainland. A recent, massive infiltration attempt that targeted Google and 20 other tech companies was the final straw. Though Google stops short of naming the Chinese government as the party behind the attacks, the implication is clear.
Here is an interesting report on the Capability of the People’s Republic of China to Conduct Cyber Warfare and Computer Network Exploitation .
Suddenly, Google has decided to stop censoring search results in China. Apparently Google’s patience ran at an all time low following allegations that Chinese hackers spied on human rights avocates over Google’s network. Read more at ars technica.
So how will this effect China’s search capabilities? Well not much was claimed on the Swedish radio today. There are other search engines used in China, although I didn’t catch the name of the most popular. So for China it is probably no big thing on a technical level, however it does send a very strong message on the political landscape.
In addition to the vulnerabilities discovered in Green Dam, the filtering software now installed on every PC sold in China since July 2009… the American company that created this program is has filed a $2.2bn (£1.4bn) lawsuit in the US accusing Beijing of stealing lines of code.
The software was created to stop people looking at “offensive” content such as pornographic or violent websites, however it seems that it also inadvertently blocks sites dealing with sexual health issues. Read more at BBC News.
Today is an exciting day because I have on Virtual Shadows added new authors to the blog. Each is either an expert in information security and privacy or they have done alot of research in this space. Please welcome them to this blog, I expect it to become much richer in content. Each will be posting events/issues on the privacy landscape on their respective countries.
So far we have Leo (Iceland), Roman (Latvia & Russia), David (Australia & New Zealand), May (Singapore), aliasname (China).
More authors to be added over the next couple of weeks 🙂
On the eve of the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen killings, social networking sites such as Twitter and the photo-sharing site Flickr were blocked in China in an attempt by the government to prevent online discussion on the subject. However twitterers were finding ways around this. Read more on BBC news.