Academics working on way to make web censorship ‘virtually impossible’

Researchers from the University of Waterloo and University of Michigan say they have developed technology that could make it “virtually impossible” for oppressive governments to censor specific websites in their countries.

The system, called Telex, will be presented Friday at a technology conference being held in San Francisco.

Ian Goldberg, a computer science professor at the University of Waterloo in southern Ontario, said he hopes Telex can be a positive force for change.

“Our goal is to enhance Internet freedom around the world and (ensure) that people get access to the information that’s out there even when their governments are trying to hide parts (of the Internet) from them,” he said.

The system works by having Telex software installed on a computer, downloaded from the web or uploaded from a disc. That computer can then be used to connect to a Telex station on a network outside a government’s sphere of control.

The user could do this by establishing a secure connection on almost any allowable website that functions with a login and password. Once logged in, the software on the computer can connect with one these Telex stations, which can direct the user to any part of the Internet.

“It would make it appear as if they were making a secure web connection to some innocuous site on the Internet, say a banking site or social media site or anything that isn’t being blocked,” Goldberg said.

Many people in countries where there are Internet restrictions find ways to connect to outside servers, known as proxies, that can give them unlimited Internet access.

However, the developers of Telex say government monitors eventually can detect what is happening then cut off access to proxy servers being used.

Goldberg said the difference with his group’s idea is it would use routers “in the middle of the network” rather than computer servers that are identifiable by their IP addresses.

He added that even if governments could locate the Telex stations and cut off access to them, the stations would be placed “in strategic positions around the Internet in such a way that if you block every flow that passes though this Telex station, you will cut off a lot of the Internet.”

Goldberg speculated that even countries that censor some websites would be reluctant to cut off significant portions of the Internet that are currently available because of economic implications and also because it would upset their citizens.

Goldberg admitted that such a plan is contingent upon getting the co-operation of major Internet service providers who would allow the Telex stations to work in conjunction with their technology.

“It might take government incentives,” he said, noting some companies might be reluctant to co-operate in something that annoys government officials in China, which is quickly emerging as an economic superpower. “We do see that the U.S. government, for example, funds anti-censorship research and anti-censorship deployments.”

A recent case of Internet censorship in China involved the removal of information on a court decision deporting Chinese fugitive Lai Changxing from Canada to China, which was posted by the Canadian Embassy in China on social networking site Sina Weibo but then taken down by Chinese officials.

Currently, Telex is operational on a demonstration basis. The researchers say it has been able to give a client in Beijing access to YouTube, which is banned in China.Goldberg declined to speculate on how long it might take to have Telex deployed on a significant basis.

Origin
Source: National Post