Chinese Censor-Beating Software Resembles Malware, But Isn't

coondoggie writes "Software designed to beat Chinese censorship may behave in ways that seem suspect, but it is all part of the application's strategy to fool the Great Firewall of China, according to one programmer of the software. 'There are many built-in tricks that do all kinds of things to confuse the firewall,' says David Tian, a scientist for NASA who works spare-time on UltraSurf, the free software designed to promote unrestricted Internet access for citizens of China persecuted for being members of Falun Gang, the religious group the Chinese government is trying to suppress."

Falun Gong

[Anonymous Coward]

Article mispelled the name, subject has the right name of the "religious" group. It is worth nothing that Falun Gong is actually a cult that believes you can become a God by setting yourself on fire or via suicide by jumping off buildings, etc. This is not a set of rationale individuals who have chosen to congregate to discuss some philosophical issues with the world. They're a nutty cult like Heaven's Gate that believes they become immortal through self-imposed death. For the rest of us to criticize the Chinese for a crackdown on something we do not understand before actually evaluating their motives is a bit presumptuous.

Confuse it? How?

[girlintraining]

You shouldn't be trying to "confuse it", you should be making sure that the traffic patterns aren't unique and discernable. In other words, using steganography. All this "confusion" stuff I read in the article gives the user a distinct pattern of behavior that can identify the user as actively using said software. If you're trying to get under the radar of the government, don't start by sending up a big digital flare that says "Hey! I'm trying to bypass your crap." It usually ends badly for the would-be revolutionary, who's first job (I might add) is to survive.

Even in so-called "free" countries like the US, the government can imprison people indefinately on the off chance that the encrypted data may be subversive. How do you suppose China would handle it? Encryption doesn't enable free speech -- a gun to the head is a pretty effective way of recovering the key.

Save lives: Use stenography.

do'h

[pbjones]

and no chinese read /. so the secret is safe.

Re:Falun Gong

[Brian Gordon]

Well pretty much any new religious movement is going to be absolutely insane. It makes sense for a communist government to suppress Falun Gong.. the problem is that they do it by treating practitioners as criminals instead of as victims.

The controversy really doesn't have anything to do with the psychological issues though.. it's that they're imprisoning people, torturing people, and harvesting organs.. not cool for any reason

What is the obsession with Falun Gong?

[DNS-and-BIND]

Seriously, wtf is this Western obsession with the Falun Gong? On one hand, you have fundamentalist athiests in charge of Western media who take every opportunity to attack and discredit any religion, much less crazy cults like Scientology or Raëlism. On the other hand, you have those same exact people coming to the defense of Falun Gong! Everyone knows they're nuts, right? To call them the Mormons of China would be too mild, they're more like the Branch Davidians. So, to sum up, we have hardcore athiests getting really offended that an officially atheist government (the best kind!) is cracking down on religion. Strange days, eh?

My own personal explanation for this bizarre behavior is that Westerners actually don't know anything about Falun Gong, and don't care to learn. They are comfortable with the "narrative" that FG=good, China=bad. And as recent events have shown, narratives are more important and cherished than the actual facts on the ground. People get *angry* when their comfortable narratives are revealed to be inaccurate.

Re:Falun Gang

[Anonymous Coward]

Uhm Falun gang is not far from the truth. Although I do not agree with the Chinese government's methods of persecution, falun gong is akin to scientology in own operations.

anon. cow. for good reason

Atheist media?

[MushMouth]

While I agree that Falun Gong is a total wacky cult (and I have old friends where sadly involved with it), but maybe you should think with a little objectivity calling the media atheist. I mean the one thing that a US presidential candidate must do is prove their love to Jesus. Don't you think if the media were atheist this sort of thing would be questioned a bit more. The one thing that a major political candidate simply can not be is Atheist, polls have pretty much proven that we will get an islamic president before we get an atheist. Personally I find the rites of all christianity, and bible stories just as nutty as the Xenu crap. Think for a second if you first heard these stories when you were in your 20s.

discredit != crackdown

[ZmeiGorynych]

Because some people, such as myself, are fully in favor of making fun of religions, but object to the 'cracking down' part. As insane as Falun Gong might be, they should be allowed to preach and practice whatever the hell they want as long as they don't resort to actual physical violence, just as the society should be free to do any counter-propaganda - but blanket censorship and putting a lot of practitioners in prison is crossing the line.

Re:Falun Gang

[Anonymous Coward]

And I think it's a religious cult with strong anti-homosexual sentiments that spouts all sorts of anti-rational new-age nonsense and gets a lot of respect from Westerners just because it's being repressed.