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CENSORSHIP

*HOW to DISABLE YOUR BLOCKING SOFTWARE

ACCESS: SURF ANNONYMOUSLY
Governments who determine that they must control what people can see in order to attempt to control what they think censor what people can find on the internet.

NET CENSORSHIP

SAUDI ARABIA & CHINA CENSOR COUNTRY

EGYPT CENSORS COUNTRY 2/1/11
Yesterday there were 2903 Egyptian networks, originated from 52 ISP's. Transit was provided via 45 unique isp's. Today at 2am UTC, the numbers look quite different, there were only 327 Egyptian networks left on the Internet. These were originated 26 by ISP's.
So 88% of the Egyptian networks is unreachable!88 percent of Egypt's networks have been cut off. This list of 243 networks Egyptian routes/prefixes that are still being routed

FILTERING SOFTWARE
Educators universally indicated that the use of filtering was to protect the school -- from liability and bad press -- not to protect kids.

Bypassing School Filters Kids and adults figure out ways around the filter.
Many lists for open proxies are available on the internet .
Using such a proxy, you can circumnavigate filtering and other security measures. You can also disguise your own whereabouts on the net, and depending on the way the proxy works, you can have an undetectable web presence. Of course, a network administrator could block the use of proxies; but every layer you add to your protection just becomes another challenge to the determined student.To Block a single machine via your HOSTS file (on a Windows network WinXP computer:
a Locate the HOSTS file in C:/WINDOWS/system32/drivers/etc/
b) Add to the bottom of the file the following lines
127.0.0.1 roboproxy.com
127.0.0.1 proxyninja.com
127.0.0.1 ninjaproxy.com
This tells your computer that the websites are all located on your local machine, and any connections to those websites will subsequently fail.

Law can get all the providers to give up the information which allowed BUSH TO SPY ON THE U.S. PUBLIC
Mark Klein released a statement with details about what he saw and did at AT&T. AT&T Forwards ALL Internet Traffic Into NSA using Narus software . Their main products identify and block or bill for VoIP phone calls made through the equipment of traditional telecom providers. They have customers for this system in the Mideast, Asia, and South America. They just signed a deal with Shanghai Telecom Co this week 4/06.Tthis is how it is done. Point, Click ... Eavesdrop : How the FBI Wiretap Net Operates 'It's a "comprehensive wiretap system that intercepts wire-line phones, cellular phones, SMS and push-to-talk systems," says Steven Bellovin, a Columbia University computer science professor and longtime surveillance expert.

FIGHT CENSORSHIP
Source: New York Times (Circuits-D13) 6/18/98
Author: Michael Pollak Banned Books Online offers links to the texts of 30 different books and plays that have been -- or are currently -- banned in the United States. The site was created by John Mark Ockerbloom, who recently received a doctorate in computer science at Carnegie Mellon Univ.in Pittsburgh. The Banned Books site also is linked to a variety of other anti-censorship resources. Censorship endangers democracy, said Dr. Ockerbloom. "It really narrows the range of discussion in the interest of whoever's in power," he said. In regards to his own work, he said, "what I'm hoping the effect will be is a lot more kids will go out and read 'Huckleberry Finn.'"

Encryption - Digital Rights Management, Cyberlibertarians, and Code Breakers

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." - Theodore Roosevelt (1918)

" During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." - George Orwell

" If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia State House, August 1, 1776.

CHINA 1989-2017 Censorship Continues

China now demands everyone online uses their legal name and cannot post otherwise. They have more than 10,000 people hired to watch the net and everyone posts. You are not allowed to post anything critical of the people's party and may get arrested if you do.

China to require PCs with software to block sites .

20th Anniversary of Tiananmen Square Massacre

American Companies affected by China Censorship

ARTICLE The Georgia-based company apparently sold its NetSpective M-Class application filter to the Chinese government with the explicit purpose of blocking SKYPE Internet calls, a move that the company says shows the "significant opportunities for Verso's products in the Chinese market." Verso Technologies, of Atlanta, Georgia , hopes to soon win a contract to block Chinese Internet users from using eBay's Skype VoIP. Yahoo , Cisco and Microsoft also selling cesorshp software in China.

2006 "China Welcomes Back Wikipedia"
For about a year China has blocked citizens from viewing Wikipedia, lest they read unflattering entries on the Tiananmen Square Massacre or the Tibetan freedom movement. But the nation has reversed course: It now allows Web surfers to visit the Chinese-language version of the encyclopedia, at least for the time being. Government officials haven't said why they stopped blocking the site. But groups that support open access to the Web are praising Wikipedia: Unlike companies like Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google, the open-source encyclopedia refused to alter any of its content to appease Chinese censors, reports the BBC News.

China steps up surveillance, targeting mobile phone messaging July 2, 2004 http://www.securityfocus.com/news/9045
China's Xinhua News Agency has announced government plans to surveil SMS (short message service) message exchanges over cell phones for pornographic, obscene, and fraudulent content, while Reporters Without Borders argues that the new measure will also aim at political dissent. China already scans e-mail and chat sessions for subversive content, and blocks a number of foreign websites, but has had difficulty keeping up with newer technologies, such as SMS. The Xinhua report did not specifically mention political dissent, but noted that the new surveillance, to be implemented by Venus Info Tech, would target violent text messages as well as those that could "harm economic interests". So far, eleven companies have been penalized for such illegal operations as prostitution as a result of the surveillance. Mobile companies are expected to implement the filters from Venus as "self-discipline".

4/06 China to regulate Internet Email Services
"On these regards, in order to regulate Internet Email Services and safeguard the legal rights of the end users, Ministry of Information Industry (MII) of P. R. China enacted the first national anti-Spam regulation on March 30th, 2006, which is hereby formulated in accordance with related national laws on telecommunications and
Internet.
According to the Regulation, any organization or individual is not allowed to provide Internet Email Services within the territory of the P. R. China if it does not receive the License for value-added telecommunication services, or not fulfill the registration procedures for non-profit Internet information services. "

Amnesty says two Chinese Internet users were executed
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=6422
US firms "colluding" in State clamp down claim By Mike Magee: 11/26 02,
HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANISATION Amnesty International issued a warning today on
its Web site that Internet users in mainland China could be killed by the State for expressing their opinion online. Thirty three people were named as "prisoners of conscience" today, for apparently doing little more than expressing their opinions online. Two "subversives" have already died in custody, it claimed. And the statement , which it released today, A also warns that overseas companies were colluding in a crack down we first reported last August.
One paragraph states: "Foreign companies, including Websense and Sun Microsystems, Cisco Systems, Nortel Networks, Microsoft have reportedly provided important technology which helps the Chinese authorities censor the Internet. Nortel Networks along with some other international firms are reported to be providing China with the technology which will help it shift from filtering content at the international gateway level to filtering content of individual computers, in homes, Internet cafes, universities and businesses."
The report asked China - avowedly a police state - to release anyone detained or jailed for using the Internet to express their views or to share information. American companies are helping China track down people that the government wants to detain for "online subversion".IIt has designated 33 people detained for using the Internet as "prisoners of conscience". Two people have already died in custody, the report said. AI says that anyone surfing the Internet in China could be at risk of "arbitrary detention and imprisonment". There are around 60 million Internet users in mainland China, with the numbers rising steadily.

VIETNAM Seeks To Monitor Customers At Internet Cafes http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/Internet/06/26/vietnam.internet.ap/index.html
State-controlled media reported on Wednesday that Communist Vietnam plans to monitor customers at Internet cafes. The government is seeking to prevent Internet users from accessing politically and morally objectionable websites. As Vietnam opens up economic links to the outside world, the government is trying to gain more control over access to foreign information and are also worried about the spreat of "reactionary" documents. Internet service providers in Vietnam are responsible for filtering "undesirable" websites, but the law has been largely unenforcable. Local authorities have now been orderd by prime minister Phan Van Khai to inspect and assess all Internet cafes and report back to the government by July 7, 2002.

Royal Thai Police Department Big Brother Watch Dog

CAUTIOUS KABUL DABBLES WITH NET 2/2/02 Author: Julia Scheeres
http://www.wired.com/News/culture/0,1284,54285,00.html
The first Internet café in Afghanistan opened this week. Although the café marks a techno-cultural step for the country, the effects of having an Internet café are not likely to affect the local population for some time to come. The café, located in Kabul's Intercontinental Hotel, is used mostly by hotel guests, including foreign journalists and wealthy Afghan émigrés. Few Afghanis can afford $5 an hour for Internet surfing when their average salary is about $1 a day. Additionally, the café owners, Afghan Wireless Communication Company, censor content. "We're very sensitive to both the culture and religious aspects of the environment we're working in," said director Gavin Jeffrey. "We installed the blocking program on our own initiative; there's not legal framework requiring us to do it." Afghan Wireless also provides mobile phone services in the country and is currently the only reliable telecommunication system in the Afghanistan. Afghan Wireless is a joint venture of U.S.-based Telephone Systems and the Afghan Ministry of Communications.

Turkey Mulls Strict Net Bill
http://www.wired.com/News/politics/0,1283,52477,00.html
A media bill to go before the Turkish parliament Tuesday could cripple the Internet industry, harm the nation's struggling economy and hobble free speech on the Web, observers say. The bill would expand already stringent regulations on all forms of media and would require websites to submit two hard copies of pages to be posted on the Internet to a government agency for prior approval.

John Gilmore Entrepreneur gnu @ toad.com, gnu@eff.org, PGP key gnu @ cygnus.com
My current project is to secure 5% of the Internet traffic against passive wiretapping. If we get 5% this year, we can secure 20% next year, against both active and passive attacks; and 80% two years out. The whole Internet will have been secured. Want to help? Encryption Policy


HISTORY

Maurice Wilkes discovers debugging, 1949 -- The Real Problem in Security is:
Neither software developers (working for vendors) nor merchants understand the principles of good software design (for security, for usability, for reliability). However, in their defense "software design" is taught neither in design schools, nor in computer science departments. Those interested in this subject might visit the The association for Software Design a non-profit organization dedicated to elevating the status of software design as a profession. As soon as we started programming, we found to our surprise that it wasn't as easy to get programs right as we had thought. Debugging had to be discovered. I can remember the exact instant when I realized that a large part of my life from then on was going to be spent in finding mistakes in my own programs.

The Ware Report
In the late 60s ARPA and then DSB sponsored a committee to write a doc on security controls. The report became very famous and often referred to as "the Ware Report" Have a look to see how thoroughly the committee understood the issue in those days; especially have a look at Appendix II SEE also the preface which explains why the original documents was classified; many people have commented on this.
Security Controls for Computer Systems . Classified for 9 years, it was declassified and republished by RAND in 1979 [R-609-1].

From: Jim Warren
Sat, 13 May 2000
Subject: 1999 patent issued for using barcode tattoos for human identification.
Aside from the comparison of this patent to the numbers tatooed on prisoners in Hitler's death-camps during World War II more than half a century ago, and its comparison to the barcode scanning systems that have been in use for decades to identify everything from cans of soup to patient tags used in some hospitals and medical records -- one wonders what kindergarden child working in the US Patent and Trademark Office concluded that this was a non-obvious and novel "discovery" worthy of a patent?!
The US PTO is obviously in need of some adult supervision! ===
United States Patent 5,878,155 Heeter Mar. 2, 1999
Method for verifying human identity during electronic sale transactions http://patents.uspto.gov/cgi-bin/ifetch4?ENG+PATBIB-ALL+0+967198+0+7+25907+OF+1+1+1+PN/5878155
Abstract -- A method is presented for facilitating sales transactions by electronic media. A bar code or a design is tattooed on an individual. Before the sales transaction can be consummated, the tattoo is scanned with a scanner. Characteristics about the scanned tattoo are compared to characteristics about other tattoos stored on a computer database in order to verify the identity of the buyer. Once verified, the seller may be authorized to debit the buyer's electronic bank account in order to consummate the transaction. The seller's electronic bank account may be similarly updated.

Robots.txt File:
Is this a Spider crawling through your site? Or, is this someone stealing your information. Don't use a robots.txt file If used incorrectly, they can greatly harm your website visibility.

Robots.txt Tools

Trends


BOOKS

Reviews of books on Security

List of Recommended books

Andrew Leonard has written a popular social history of bots .
Bots, the Origin of New Species is not an scholarly book, but it is an academic and a well-researched one, with an eight-page bibliography, a glossary, and an index.

"Databanks in a Free Society" compiled by Alan F. Westin, Project Director, Computer Science and Engineering Board of the National Academy of Sciences, 1973 "Function creep is a primary rule of databases and identifiers," said Barry Steinhardt, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union, citing how the Social Security number, originally meant for old-age benefits, has become a universal identifier for financial and other transactions. "History teaches us that even if protections are incorporated in the first place, they don't stay in place for long." Driver's Privacy Protection Act; Intelli- Check drivers license-scanning equipment can give your name, height, weight, age, eye color, birth date, driver's license ID number and expiration date for the purpose of age verification. On the AAMVA web site shows the barcode specification allows for encoding an alias, organ donor status, and undefined "medical indicator/codes".