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Internet Censorship, the Great Firewall of China

With the arrival of the Olympic Games 2008 in Beijing, it seems this would be an appropriate time to focus on the Great Firewall of China, or the Golden Shield Project (as officially known). The Golden Shield is a censorship and surveillance program run by the Chinese Ministry of Civil Service. While the Chinese government has been using the Great Firewall censor and block websites in China since 2003, many of us do not have a full understanding of the Golden Shield Project and its complexities. This article is not intended to start a revolution against the Chinese government to reduce the Great Firewall, but a means to gain a better understanding of something that many Americans and Europeans have little knowledge on – Internet censorship under the GSP.

While most Americans and Europeans have the right to choose which sites to visit and surf the Internet freely (again the keyword is "most"), citizens of other countries are stifled by government censorship of the Internet. In China any site expressing opposing views or states a negative opinion of the government is prohibited. Not only the place to be prohibited, but authors may face criminal charges and lengthy prison sentence. While many sites have been recently released by the Chinese government for the Beijing Olympics, many other sites including democracy advocates, the Taiwanese government and the media and the blogs are still banned. The idea of having the right to privacy or any Internet privacy is a concept that many Chinese citizens have little understanding of.

The concept of the Great Firewall began in 1998 and became operational in 2003. The need for the GSP is derived from the communist regimes fearing that the Chinese Democracy Party would be to develop an extensive network and powerful that he could not control. The GSP acts as a firewall (hence the nickname) and blocks content based on IP addresses and a huge database of banned websites. The IPs are prohibited and prevented access to blocked content basically by using a reverse proxy server would use (think: reverse proxy). Any direction IP that comes from a Chinese server is denied access instantly. The GSP also combines IP filtering with DNS poisoning to maintain control over the Internet in China.

Together with IP blocking, URL, DNS, and packet filtering, the GSP has a unique feature: not only ban these sites based on methods but also the prohibition of web sites based on content. PrivacyView Software Internet Privacy and Security blog would be banned on the spot because shows the methods of access to "banned sites." In addition, any content that is considered subversive by the government be subject to expulsion, including pro-democracy, pro-Tibet and pro-anything that the Chinese government is against. The advanced GPS technology blocks web sources, in particular those with rss, feed and the blog in the URL. Even with the sophisticated technology, 28% of sites that should not be allowed to slip through the cracks, this system Internet censorship has been working well for China. With the number of Internet police in China reached 30,000, the permanent lifting of websites banned in China does not seem a plan for the near future.

Now the self-censorship practiced by many Chinese. While sites should not be allowed to slip through the cracks, Chinese citizens end up practicing self-censorship and do not visit these sites anyway. It makes perfect sense: The fact that the site has not been banned, however, is still plain sight? Why take that risk and end up in jail like many Chinese bloggers do? The idea that you are being watched by the project Golden Shield, although the site is allowed on the network, is a powerful force … people tend to act differently when their bosses, or the authorities are paying attention.

Despite China's Golden Shield project has recently allowed an unprecedented amount of Web traffic to pass through servers in China, is only a matter of time before the website are the prohibitions in place and the Chinese government has become the Internet police. Before returning to China and the prohibition of I nternet Internet and censorship China program takes full effect again, it is important to know the various methods to prevent and circumvent the restrictions. Chinese officials lifted its ban on certain websites after journalists were upset that many of the sites that need to access were not available due to the GSP, but once the final medal is awarded and the closing ceremony to end it probably will not have long before China is back to the prohibition of so much content as possible, so it is important to know how to bypass the Great Firewall and Privacy on the Internet.

The following methods may be familiar, as it used to surf anonymously , But actually work well enough to avoid the GSP and access to banned sites.

Anonymous Proxy Servers: Proxy anonymous based outside of China can be used to block access to content. The sites are blocked only to Chinese citizens and therefore if you navigate with a U.S. – O a proxy server based in Europe then you can access restricted sites. The website to read the IP address and give you permission to view this site. At the same time, the server hide your IP so that anyone snooping the connection is a person from Tulsa, OK surf the Internet. As an added bonus of a good proxy server also encrypt data being transmitted so that anyone can spy not see the information sent over the connection.

Foreign companies may apply for a local website hosted in China. Although this method does not apply to an individual user attempting to access a forbidden site, is a method circumvent the Great Firewall because the content of the company did not have to go through the Great Firewall. The company has to seek a local license of the PIC, which is not guaranteed. The license PIC is basically a permit that allows a Chinese website organized to function. Without an ICP license sites are at risk of being blocked by the ISP according to the orders government.

Using secure tunnels as a virtual private network (VPN). GSP can not filter secure traffic is being communicated, so that the tunnels are safe and ensure a way for users to access content and create sites that would otherwise be prohibited. A VPN is a method for connecting a computer to a network server without physical cables. Instead, the team and the host are linked via the Internet through a tunnel sure that only allows access to the connected parts.

Onion routing networks such as Tor can be used since it requires computer network and mask to encrypt your information. This method is, in essence, very similar to an anonymous proxy server, the only real difference is that users allow their computers and connections to be used as nodes. A person (in this case a Chinese citizen trying to view a blog) will be connected through a network of nodes that received encrypted data transmitted and hide IP address. The major drawback is that I do not know Tor who created the anonymous connection is passing through. You really have no idea to configure the connection and therefore anyone can invade your privacy through this network of trust.

While the temporary lifting of certain banned websites please the International Olympic Committee, and prevented China is seen as a restrictive regime of the Government, the keyword is of course "temporary." With the minutes of freedom of the countdown is important knowing that ultimately, these methods of passing through the Great Firewall to allow Internet users to choose whether or not to visit blogs and other sites URL restricted.

About the Author

President and founder of PrivacyView Software, LLC. PrivacyView is a privately held company headquartered in Tampa, Florida. Founded in 2003, the company creates and markets privacy software for consumers. The company and its products have won numerous technology awards. Click here for more information about Internet Privacy or Anonymous Surfing