Government eager to use Net surveillance software currently in test phase

http://en.rsf.org/russia-government-eager-to-use-net-28-10-2011,41309.html

+ There seems to be an error in the last paragraph of the article,should replace "Reporters without Borders" with "Russia".

+ I would ask that in any discussion on this, that political comments are not expressed, thanks.

 

Another one. By the time all of these countries get done filtering out everything that each one doesn't like, I wonder if there will be any legitimate traffic left, besides Facebook gibberish.

 

Absolutely, they just want to catch every "fish" in their net that displeases them it seems. Appears that in the future if you're not "a pea in a pod" then you'll be persona non grata.

 

There's nothing surprising here when you consider that they are heading back to Communism full time and have said as much. The people there, if they choose to, will have to start using some of the same tools and methods that the Chinese use to get around the coming restrictions. Golden Shield can be worked around by persistence, so can whatever the Russian government decides to do. Getting caught, however, will not be pleasant.

Edit: As for political comments, I'm not sure what people expect when they post stories like this. This is a political issue. However, I agree that "Yay democracy!" or "Boo Communists", can and should be left out.

 

I doubt whether it would be a return to any form of communism, totalitarianism maybe, a plutocracy definitely.

 

Any of the three options are going to cause problems, both inside the country and in international relations. But, I smell the steel of the thread-lock hammer, so I guess we talk about how to avoid the software? Which, of course, is via VPN, TOR and others..provided things like that don't get blocked from access as well.

 

They're already a plutarchy. The Internet is a concern to all governments though. Anyway, they'll always be someone to find a crack or a hack around government software I reckon.

 

They'll have to find ways around it, the problem isn't going to get better.

 

That's for sure.

 

On that basis, let me put this idea out there. Besides monitoring known IPs used by "persons of interest", I can only assume that all of these "official" censorship/surveillance systems use some form of keyword system that automatically identifies traffic that contains specific words, then diverts/clones it for further attention.

I've often thought that we've been using techniques based on the wrong ideas for dealing with this sort of unacceptable censorship. Instead of trying to hide from the censorship or circumventing it, go the opposite direction. IMO, hiding content sends the wrong message and (after they twist it) gives the impression that its users have "something to hide". Instead, put those keywords in every packet of every connection, on every page, in every message from as many computers as possible, and overload that censorship system completely. The words themselves aren't illegal and if it became public that governments are harassing people just for using those words or tries to make words illegal, the result reaction from Joe Public could get very interesting. Maybe someone should make a rootkit that just inserts one or more of those words into every packet sent by every PC, but does no damage.

 

I honestly don't think this is a political issue, moreover it's a surveillance/web control issue, since N,S,E&W..left and right, they all seem to see a need to control. And of course this is understandable for best maintenance of national security, as they see it. But they already have intense monitoring of FB, Twitter etc and various methods in place...only to be expected.
The real issue is, that as well as catching the really bad ones, they use their technology to mould things more as they want, affecting the innocent also.

I do accept that this is very difficult to discuss without saying something political, and appreciate folks care taken...many thanks.

Edit: Added "as they see it"

 

No need to assume, as almost all of the public communications systems under surveillance (telephone, email, web traffic) use keywords to flag potential issues (I assure you that the NSA is not sitting around waiting for you to type the word "crack" or "P2P" into Google). Every one from the Secret Service up to the CIA uses this method, combined with others.

As far as your suggestion, I really don't know how feasible that would end up being. As far as Joe Public...they've already sat by and let too much happen. They don't know everything, no. But they have been given enough information and, if they would bother, can find enough to make them pause. Whether we can believe it or not, the general public just doesn't care.

 

I disagree. It is a political issue as it is policy that creates these situations. The NSA and others could actually work more efficiently without the blanket surveillance. You have to understand, without encryption of data (meaning no PGP, no TOR/VPN or any other tools), communications are very easy to monitor, especially the Internet. Literally everything is capable of being monitored, and generally is.

 

I have a feeling a lot of the debate is 'over the head' of a great proportion of the general public. Notwithstanding the fact that the great unwashed, man on the Clapton omnibus, general public receive most of their information from the insidious redtop press & other equally hysterical media (well they do in my country anyway) & are more concerned with evil 'trades unions', assorted lefties-commies conspiring to destroy the economy & kiddy-fiddling terrorist-extremist dole-scrounging asylum-seeking crack-taking drug-addled riot-starting muggers.

It's not a matter of not 'caring' so much as not being 'aware' of ...

 

Yes and no. The media does contribute to the issue because they tend to focus on the "alarming discovery" of the moment, a.k.a Facebook and its ongoing privacy issues..but lack of care from the public can be seen in these very same situations. After all, they're still posting the same things that got them into trouble, and they're still accepting invites from strangers and running applications willy nilly. Trust me, I've seen enough to tell me the public really doesn't give a hoot.

 

Now don't hedge your bets with a definite answer LOL.

Yeah, you're probably right. Sometimes I overestimate the general public.

 

Don't know that there's a whole lot more that can be said on this, and we don't have a lot of info about the software, and members have had opportunity to state their opinions (thanks to all), so as far as I'm concerned, this thread has run its course.
But, of course, the moderators know what is best....