New Research On Computer Backdoors Reveals Disturbing Long Term Risks For All Netizens

Nov 052012
 

Research by the University of Toronto Citizen Lab shows that computer back doors are a permanent security risk to users through out the world.

Their research based on events in the middle east demonstrates readily available commercial software is being used by governments to infiltrate computers used by critics and dissidents.

Bloomberg news reported the case of Ahmed Mansoor who was sitting in “his study in Dubai and made the mistake of clicking on a Microsoft Word attachment that arrived in an e-mail, labeled “very important” in Arabic, from a sender he thought he recognized.

“With that click, the pro-democracy activist unwittingly downloaded spyware that seized on a flaw in the Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) program to take over his computer and record every keystroke. The hackers infiltrated his digital life so deeply they still accessed his personal e-mail even after he changed his password.

Since then, Mansoor, 42, an electrical engineer and father of four, says he has suffered two beatings by thugs in September during his campaign for citizens’ civil rights in the Persian Gulf federation of the United Arab Emirates. While those assailants remain unknown, researchers say they’ve figured out what was behind the virtual assault.

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“The Internet In A Suitcase” U.S. Plan To Out Flank Repressive Regimes

Jun 222011
 

 

The United States is developing ways to allow citizens under repressive regimes to maintain free accesss to the internet and mobile phones

PCMag.com reports that the State Department-led project “involves the building of independent phone networks in foreign countries and the creation of a $2-million prototype “Internet in a suitcase” by an entrepreneurial outfit operating out of a building on L Street in Washington, D.C., The New York Times reported Monday.”

“The idea is to fit innocent-looking hardware components into a package that could easily be snuck into a repressive country and quickly assembled to deliver wireless service across a wide area to maintain crucial communications between legitimately protesting citizens, according to The Times, which cited “dozens of interviews, planning documents and classified diplomatic cables” it obtained.”

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China’s Response To NY Law Suit: We Have A Free Internet

May 192011
 

Responding to a New York law suit claiming it censors online information, China says web users in the country were free to express themselves adding it had a policy of keeping an open internet.

Bloomberg News  said the case had been brought in he United States against Chinese search engine Baidu claiming it assists the Government in censoring on line content.

The report said China hit back at the claims with Jiang Yu, a Foreign Ministry spokeswomana saying China guarantees “freedom of speech” on the Internet,  in response to questions about the case.

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Chinese White Paper Proclaims Human Rights And Internet Freedom Progress – But Definitions Open To Debate

Sep 272010
 

The Chinese government Sunday released a white paper on human rights in China in 2009. It hightlighs Internet freedom and the country’s efforts in safeguarding citizens’ legitimate civil and political rights.

According to China’s official news agency Xinhua “The overall cause of human rights has been promoted in an all-round way,” says the white paper, published by the State Council Information Office under the title “Progress in China’s Human Rights in 2009″.

But there is already some disagreement about what terms such as “human rights” and freedom mean.

The Wall Street Journal blogger  Josh Chin summed it up like this:

Ask American politicians to explain “human rights” and you’re likely to get the usual litany of time-worn liberal democratic abstractions: freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, habeas corpus.

“Ask a Chinese politician and you get…car ownership?

“In an extensive whitepaper released over the weekend, China’s State Council Information Office argues authorities in Beijing have made significant progress in protecting human rights over the past year. Entitled “Progress in China’s Human Rights in 2009 (full text), the paper features a cornucopia of statistics and arguments that throws into stark, and sometimes amusing, relief the different ways Chinese and Western governments define the concept.