China Tightens The "Great Firewall"

Discussion in 'privacy general' started by Mman79, Dec 19, 2012.

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  1. Mman79

    Mman79 Registered Member

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  2. I guess they are blocking UDP PORT 1194 packets.
     
  3. Mman79

    Mman79 Registered Member

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    It looks to be something akin to ISPs commonly throttling the most common P2P protocols in the earlier days before people started using obfuscation and very high, random port numbers. Of course those protections are not as viable as they once were either. I'm just taking a guess as to how it works as I'm not currently in China. Either way, it's being done and doesn't bode well for those that consider encrypted communications to be a sure bet and that these methods can't be controlled.
     
  4. Nebulus

    Nebulus Registered Member

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    It seems to be a little bit of confusion here. The encrypted communications are as safe as they were before, nothing changed here. It's not like China found a way to decrypt every data stream... They just set up a system that looks at the data and decides if it is encrypted or not and drops the connection if it is (probably it does some other checks as well, but that's the general idea).
     
  5. Mman79

    Mman79 Registered Member

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    No confusion really as the safety of encryption isn't under discussion. The point is that it can't be counted on as China has all but completely stopped it. The method of communicating is safe, the use of it and likely soon the providing of it by companies is not. An ISP can see you using a VPN,they cannot see what you're doing with it (presumably, and is still considered true by most). All China need do is go to ISP providers and/or VPN providers (who very much will turn logs over unlike other nations) to get the information on users who, as you know, are very much seen until they connect to the VPN.

    No, this isn't confusing, it's bad.
     
  6. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    I've been wondering why China was lagging behind Iran and Pakistan on this ;)

    And yes, the end of "wild west" VPNs is coming for many of us.

    What's next?
     
  7. Mman79

    Mman79 Registered Member

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    China lagged behind on that and lags behind on many other things for one simple reason. They have much more to lose by stepping their toes too far over the line. Unlike the two you mentioned, China is a world power. And, with that comes a lot of clout, leeway, political gain and more. To get on the international s**t list for them means a whole lot more than it does for a hardcore, true regime like Iran, who is also used to staying on said list.
     
  8. elapsed

    elapsed Registered Member

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    You can only push people so far before it's too much, it will happen. Have the popcorn ready.
     
  9. Sorry I'm calling BS on this subject. If you know China you will know it's all westerner's managing the factories and they ALL NEED VPN's to communicate with the world so I don't see this aimed at them, maybe this is more aimed at locals using VPN's but I doubt this practice will last for long.

    What they do is DNS cache poisoning attacks to spy on VPN users.
     
  10. Mman79

    Mman79 Registered Member

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    What exactly are you calling BS on, them blocking the connections, the targets (which really was never even specified in the article, so no clue where you'd get that)? You know it's DNS cache poisoning how? Are they most likely regular citizens? Sure. This practice will last for as long as it takes someone to work around the firewall again..and then the government will start attacking that method as well

    @Elapsed: The moment you see any large, general population suddenly care enough and get p***ed enough to actually do something but grumble for a week and then go back to watching TV or updating their social profile, governments fall. No government can withstand their entire population of citizens coming against them, no matter how many fall in doing so. If you ever had an "Arab Spring" in China or, God help us, the U.S, it would be nothing short of a catastrophe. You won't need popcorn, you'll need a rifle.
     
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