As the world turns to China for being the least affected with financial crisis and as the next promising super-power country, China has decided to tightens its Internet censorship by forcing all new computers to be installed with its new firewall software. And this is the country that was promiting upcoming Internet freedom before and during the Beijing olympics.
Basically, the firewall application that is required on all new PCs, has the ability to block users from surfing prohibited websites (i.e pornography). But not just that, it all blocks any search a user is trying to make based on key political words or phrases. A user with many attempts to search for such prohibited words will be subject to imprisonment or fine.
The experts who saw the code for the application have noted that prohibited political keywords is much more than actual pornography sites. However, the chinese authorities are promoting this application as “healthy development of the Internet” and “effectively manage harmful material for the public and prevent it from being spread”.
Now here is something interesting, BBC and research fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society have reported that this application has many security vulnerabilities that may case the PC to be easily hacked or spammed with spyware. I guess the chinese gov’t could careless about those issues as long as it can benefit out of the outcome.
