SCN: Hackers Developing Anti-Censorship Software (fwd)

[Sharma]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2001 02:12:48 EDT

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010716/tc/tech_censorship_dc_1.html [links]

Monday July 16 7:13 PM ET 

Hackers Developing Anti-Censorship Software

By Elinor Abreu

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - A group of hackers is finishing work on software that 
would enable human rights workers to access censored Web sites, in a move 
that 
ratchets up the ``arms race'' between free speech activists on the Internet 
and government censors in Asia and the Middle East.

The software, called ``Peekabooty,'' was scheduled to be unveiled this past 
weekend but was pushed back to later this year to make sure it adequately 
protects those using it, said Oxblood Ruffin, a leader in the group.

``We believe that access to information is a basic human right guaranteed by 
law,'' he told Reuters following a weekend session on the project at the 
DefCon conference for hackers and network security advisors. ``It is going to 
be an arms race.''

Already there have been efforts to thwart the project. The United Arab 
Emirates blocked access to the Web site of hacker group Cult of the Dead Cow 
last year right after the group announced plans for the anti-censorship 
software, said Bronc Buster, another member of the group, which calls itself 
''Hactivismo.''

Along with the UAE, countries that prevent their citizens from accessing 
certain Web sites they deem political or pornographic include Saudi Arabia, 
Myanmar, China and North Korea, the group said.

The Peekabooty software will circumvent filters designed to block access to 
Web sites by going around them, using a distributed privacy network, 
according 
to a Hactivismo fact sheet.

Nearly 30 volunteers are working on the project, including lawyers, 
programmers, students and human rights workers in the United States, China, 
Canada, Europe, Israel, Taiwan and South Korea, the group said.

At the conference, human rights workers urged hackers to do what they could 
to 
use technology to advance human rights.

Patrick Ball, deputy director of the American Association for the Advancement 
of Science and its Science and Human Rights Action Network, said encryption 
had helped his group save lives and bring human rights abusers to justice.

``Hacking is finding things out. It is knowledge, especially when things are 
hidden, obscure and important,'' Ball said.

The Cult of the Dead Cow is known for making a splash at DefCon. In 1999, the 
group released Back Orifice, which can be used by malicious hackers to gain 
unauthorized access to PCs running Windows 95 or Windows 98. 

Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

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