Security and Privacy

According to NY Times, University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab will release Psiphon, a private secure web proxy server, to public on December 1. According to Psiphon's web site,

What is psiphon?

psiphon is a censorship circumvention solution that allows users to access blocked sites in countries where the Internet is censored. psiphon turns a regular home computer into a personal, encrypted server capable of retrieving and displaying web pages anywhere

Who will use psiphon?

psiphon operates through networks of trust. There are psiphon providers who install and administer a psiphon server (psiphonode) in an uncensored country, and psiphon users (psiphonites) who login and access the server from a country that censors the Internet.

What are psiphonodes, psiphonode administrators and psiphonites??

A psiphonode is a psiphon server that is operated by an administrator residing in an uncensored country (this is an integration of 'psiphon' and 'Node'). The psiphonode administrator is responsible for creating and managing user accounts and running the psiphon server. A psiphonite is a psiphon user, residing within a jurisdiction that blocks arbitrary web sites, and utilizes a psiphonode residing in an uncensored jurisdiction.

How does psiphon work?

psiphon acts as a "web proxy" for authenticated psiphonites, retrieving requested web pages and displaying them in a user's browser. psiphon uses a secure, encrypted connection to receive web requests from the psiphonite to the psiphonode who then transports the results back to the psiphonite. There is no connection between the psiphonite and the requested website, as psiphon transparently proxies the request through the psiphonode's computer allowing the psiphonite to browse blocked websites seamlessly.

Though there are quite a lot web based proxy services around, few of them provides SSL encryption that helps to get around packet filtering of Great Firewall of China. Now with Psiphon and source code, it would easy for you to set up a secure web proxy service for your family and friends.

Labels: Proxy Services

It is really not surprising to me that Wikipedia web site got blocked again by Great Firewall of China on Friday. Given the current political trend in China, I could not imagine a sudden change in the government policy of blocking high profile user community web sites, such as Wikipedia, blogspot. When riots in Guangdong, Sichuan are widely reported by BBC and New York Times, Chinese government does have an urgent need to prevent "bad" news from reaching its own people.

Also, check out William Moss's analysis on this issue.

[update]
NY Times did a report on self-censoring of Chinese language version of Wikipedia. Overall, I find quality of articles on Chinese Wikipedia leaves a lot to be desired.

Labels: Censorship, Great Firewall