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Before enrolling in this class, I was under the impression that Hackers resembled nerdy computer geeks; occasionally, sexy starlets such as Angelia Jolie portray hackers in the movies. Thanks to this class, I’ve realized that I couldn’t be any farther from the truth.
Just as easily as Joe Lieberman shut down Wikileaks, governments infiltrates their way through foreign countries Internets and shut down the Internet within the span of a few phone calls. How can the Internet be compromised so easily? The answer is simple: all Internet activities travel through government and corporate-owned “choke points”. If you’re wondering why the Egyptian Internet was shut down so easily, then here’s your answer. President Mubarak phoned each of the four Internet service providers in his country and the Internet was shortly out of service.
Some of you may be thinking, “This couldn’t possibly happen to the U.S.” Well, think again. On March 24th, 2010, China’s internal censorship system deterred web traffic from YouTube, Twiiter and Facebook. Web surfers in the U.S. and China who attempted to utilize those sites were sent to a link, claiming these social media websites did not exist. All of this is documented in the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission’s 2010 annual report.
On April 8th, 2010, China managed to break through American Internet again for about 18 minutes. During this time period, several websites were redirected through China’s web network. Here is a list of certain sites that were affected: U.S. government and military sites, the Senate, the Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Air Force and the office of the Secretary of Defense, the USCC. I would like to know China’s motivation behind these Internet attacks and how they planned to employ the information. According to the USCC, Chinese telecommunications firms have the potential to block certain websites from users and they have the ability to transfer the data to an unintended site or user.
If China has the ability to bring untended information to a web user, what about the United States’ capabilities? According to Fox News, the U.S. government has broken through Chinese Internet censorship; this news originated from the Broadcasting Board of Governors’ report. The U.S. government has been testing different methods for a year. So far, the testing has included a technology called Feed Over E-mail or FOE. FOE delivers podcasts news and data to foreigners utilizing an American e-mail system (such as Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo). This e-mail technology is able to jump over any type of online blocks the Chinese government has in place. The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) said this technology was first acquired and authenticated by the nonprofit GovernmentAttic through the Freedom of Information Act. When the FOE technology reaches the Chinese population, they will have access to an uncensored version of the Internet.
So far, this is the only initiative the U.S. is taking to battle foreign censors. The global effort is known as the Alliance of Youth Movements; AYM was started under former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and continued by Secretary of State Hilary Clinton.
In my opinion, everyone should have freedom of speech and the freedom to read the articles they desire online. On the other hand, is it really our business to go medaling into other countries Internet databases? Do the Chinese people wish to access and uncensored version of the Internet? In contrast, at least the U.S. government is giving the China data and not stealing it from them. As I ponder these incidents, I imagine either a hacker or a government official of some sort grasping our Internet from beneath our feet. Perhaps we’ve made it all too easy to create and destroy.
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