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Psiphon Now Available For Download

Posted by Zonk on Fri Dec 01, 2006 10:51 AM
from the information-she-wants-to-be-free dept.
Government Software Privacy The Internet Politics
eldavojohn writes "Project Psiphon has been released for public download under the GPL. CNN has coverage of the Canadian research project that 'works by first allowing a person in a country like Canada that does not censor Internet content to set up a user name and a password for a person in a country that does — China, for example.' While this idea is certainly nothing new to Slashdot, the fact that software like Psiphon is becoming publicly available is interesting. For a quick simplified 'How it works,' Psiphon has a Flash demonstration." Not a moment too soon, apparently. China is moving to assign IDs to bloggers, to register their real identities and track their statements online.
+ -
story

Related Stories

[+] Your Rights Online: Canadians To Douse Chinese Firewall 342 comments
FrenchyinOntario writes "Researchers at a University of Toronto lab are getting ready to release a computer program called Psiphon, which will allow Internet users in free countries to help users in more restrictive countries (like China, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, etc.) to access the Internet by getting past the firewalls and getting around "rubber hose cryptoanalysis" which is a drawback of other anti-firewall programs as it reveals a user's tracks if discovered by authorities. Operating through port 443, Psiphon will allow users in monitoring countries the ability to send an encrypted request for certain information, and for users in secure countries to send it back to them. The UofT's Citizen Lab hopes to debut Psiphon at the international congress of the free speech group PEN in May."
[+] Your Rights Online: Tearing Down China's Great Firewall 410 comments
quadsoft writes to tell us The Toronto Star has a look at three University Toronto computer geeks who are working hard to circumvent the internet censorship problems like those found in China. From the article: "But the computer smarts of Ron Deibert, Nart Villeneuve, and Michael Hull, combined with their passion for politics and free expression, have led them to develop a highly anticipated software program that allows Internet users inside China and other countries, such as Iran, Saudi Arabia and Burma, to get around repressive censorship and not get caught."
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  • Excellent! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Jennifer York (1021509) on Friday December 01 2006, @11:01AM (#17066364) Homepage
    This is a fantastic service! It would be a great way for the troops in Iraq to get their message out; since they recently had a big crack down too. China is not the only place where you can be prosecuted / persecuted for what you write online.

  • Yikes! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Otter (3800) on Friday December 01 2006, @11:02AM (#17066376) Journal
    1) As always, there's a total lack of understanding here of how police states work. You think the Saudi or Myanmanmar police are going to look at your computer and say "Gee, what with your 1337 circumvention software, I guess we can't make a case against you! Have a nice day!"?

    2) On the other hand, I'm sure there *are* plenty of people who could make enthusiastic use of web browsing from some stranger's IP. But I'm sure they'd never get you in serious trouble, right?

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by PingSpike (947548)
      You bring up some important points. The 'contact' is putting his trust in the guy he's helping do the circumvention. Its the same idea as an open wireless network. Even if you don't mind sharing your bandwidth with strangers, do you trust them to not download kiddie porn or run a phishing scam over your internet connection? That'll probably come back to bite you in the ass if they do.

      Your first point depends on how hard it is to detect that some one is using this circumvention software. They're doing someth

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by lawpoop (604919)
      I heard an interview on NPR last night with one of the Professors who was involved with the creation of this software. The idea behind it is that it is to be used in a web of trust, not with random strangers. So if you're mainland Chinese and you have a cousin in the US, you let him provide you the connection. Don't leave it up to strangers to provide you the connection.

  • Not only good for people in censored countries... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by B11 (894359) on Friday December 01 2006, @11:03AM (#17066406)
    But also for Americans. More and more of us are going to schools, universities, and workplaces that install and use content filtering/firewalls. Where I work most of /. isn't blocked (obviously), but curiously enough, the games and ask sections of slashdot are blocked. Most blogs and web forums are blocked as well. The sad thing is, a major part of my job is research, and more and more important information is coming via those venues (at least in my field), and other sites that being blocked.
    • I setup a personal VPN server at home, then tried tunneling X over it via an SSH connection to see how feasible it was to browse from home while at work. Nifty, except I also knew my office had stealthed VNCs installed on all the machines, thereby rendering any such circumvention completely moot. Fine for your personal machines when you're worried about your provider/government. Not so much when you're worried about what you do on your employer's machines or any machine you don't have absolute control over
    • I am responsible for admining this sort of censorware.

      If your company blocks gaming sites, yet your job requires gaming sites, you should use the proper avenue to get permission to view gaming sites. In many orgs, our manager will need to tell your security department that you need the access.

      If, on the other hand, you use proxy servers or other technology to willingly and knowingly circumvent your company's policy and security controls, you could wind up fired. Don't be a dumbass.

  • Yeah... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by jandersen (462034) on Friday December 01 2006, @11:07AM (#17066452)
    Brilliant. But you don't win freedom or anything else by hiding somewhere and spreading nonsense on the internet. If you want things to change, the way forward it to go out there and take the risks. The ones who don't have the courage very rarely have anything real to say. Look at our own history in the West: it is littered with examples of who changes were brought about because of the struggle of those who had vision and courage. The same thing is happening in China, and not at all slowly when you compare to how things went in Europe. Just look at what has happened in the last 20 years; did people in eg. UK ever go through such enormous changes in so short a time?
    • Since you ask, in the 17th Century the English fought a Civil War at the end of which they executed a King. They then had a Revolutionary government which turned them from an obscure island to a major European power. The revolutionary government then collapsed and the Stuarts returned (back to the old corruption, in fact). In 1688 they turned out the Stuarts and started Constitutional Monarchy. In roughly a 40 year period they had a Revolution, a Cultural Revolution under a militaristic dictator, a reconque

    • Re:Yeah... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by oldstrat (87076) on Friday December 01 2006, @11:35AM (#17067030) Journal
      The U.S.S.R. would still exist today if it hadn't been for all those folks "hiding" behind fax machines, getting the word out.
      Vision and Courage are great but they don't exist without information.

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by LindseyJ (983603)
        I think you vastly underestimate the actual reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union.

        (Here's a hint: It had very little to do with "folks 'hiding' behind fax machines, getting the word out.")

          • Fax machines did not collapse the USSR, but they made the change one that swung towards a form of Democracy instead of another totalitarian regime.

            Hmmmm...so you think Russia has a form of Democracy and not a totalitarian regime, huh? You might want to pay a little closer attention to the newscasts... Have a look at this Google news search [google.com]. There's more to Russia than meets the eye.

            Like the printing press in the American Revolution.

            While I don't doubt that printers and printing presses had a lot to do wit

            • "I would say that the invention of the printing press had more to do with European people seeking to colonize America than with the Revolution itself."

              And so you would be revealing your own massive ignorance.
              The fax machine was anything but new

              Russia is a Democracy last time I checked, elections with opposition party's, am elected head of state and legislature and an operating legal system.
              Flawed, broken, but not down or out - it's in a very close approximation to most of the major democracy's around the wo

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by PingSpike (947548)
      One individual revolutionary isn't going to change anything. One revolutionary that spreads his ideas to others and builds a following can. Thats why their internet is censored in the first place. It blocks the message and blocks the crucial organization of followers.
  • As far as I can tell, this is nothing new-- there are a variety of publicly available programs that have done the same thing since as early as 1996, when China and Singapore first announced their intentions to censor the Web. One such tool is CGIProxy [jmarshall.com], but there are others. Or is there something else about Psiphon, am I missing something?
    • Well, you could read their FAQ, but since others have posted the same, I'll reply.

      The primary this is easy to install and use. The software package will be designed for easy installation on most operating systems. If you have a friend using a state-filtered 'net connection, then it will be can help them without understanding the specifics of port forwarding, encryption, or web servers. Ease of use allows ease of distribution.

      Second, the software encrypts the data, unlike port forwarders and CGIproxy, AFA

      • The primary this is easy to install and use. The software package will be designed for easy installation on most operating systems. If you have a friend using a state-filtered 'net connection, then it will be can help them without understanding the specifics of port forwarding, encryption, or web servers. Ease of use allows ease of distribution.

        Actually, CGIProxy has had automatic installers for several years, for both Unix and Windows. The Windows installer includes a secure Apache server and Perl, and

        • Encryption is very important to someone circumventing authoritative measures. When you are facing jail time for crimes against the state, you want to be sure that your activities are hidden. Wikipedia is not going to be running on SSL anytime soon, so this is a useful feature. Why are you so against new software models, jsm? The slashdot summary did not say it was the first time it was being done, so what's your beef? Or do you look down on any software forking? Listen, that's the beauty of open softw

          • Easy there, cowboy-- I'm not against any new software models, and I don't look down on software forking; I never mentioned either, nor anything about any 99.999% . From my site, it's easy to tell that I have long supported OSS, and even intentionally write my software to be easy to modify. Please do not put words in my mouth.

            The story summary says "the fact that software like Psiphon is becoming publicly available is interesting." That is what I was correcting, because such software has been publicly a

    • CGIProxy requires a server and is not stand alone
      PsiPhon is supposed to be installable on any PC connected to the internet in an uncensored country.
      Plug and go, if we ever see it.
      I suspect that liablity lawyers have gotten in the way at UofT.

      • CGIProxy requires a server and is not stand alone PsiPhon is supposed to be installable on any PC connected to the internet in an uncensored country. Plug and go, if we ever see it.

        Actually, CGIProxy is installable on just about any machine, regardless of OS. For Windows, there is an automatic installer that includes a secure Apache server and Perl, so the package is, in effect, stand-alone. The installing person does not need technical skills. It's already "plug and go".

  • Like using a whitelist instead of a blacklist. Only approved sites & services can be used by the citizens. This doesn't seem to hard to get around.
  • There.
    Somebody had to say it.
    No download links anywhere, not for source code or executable on any platform.
    Until the product actually exists "in the wild", China and the University of Parinoia have nothing to fear but enthusiasm.

    I appreciate the idea behind PSIPHON and the PR, but until there's a PRODUCT any discussion is just jaw flapping, not discussion of PSIPHON.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by itlurksbeneath (952654)

      From their web site:

      When will psiphon be released?

      psiphon software will be released on December 1st, 2006, with subsequent releases to be provided as new features are added over time.

      Two things come to mind:

      1. December 1st isn't over yet
      2. Maybe they haven't updated the web site yet
      • And that's really what you think?
        Promote a Dec. 1 release and then wait until 23:59 to "build suspense"?
        It's already Dec. 2 in much of the world that it's intended to help.

        Number 2 is not correct since midnight they've added FAQ's and news but still no download-ables.

        So you're wrong on both counts Dec. 1 is over and they have updated the site.

  • I for one welcome... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Billosaur (927319) * <wgrotherNO@SPAMoptonline.net> on Friday December 01 2006, @11:35AM (#17067020) Journal

    ...our new anonymous Canadian overlords... or I would... if I knew who they were... never mind.

  • Who is helping the Chinese government censor? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by br00tus (528477) on Friday December 01 2006, @11:43AM (#17067200)
    The Hippocratic oath that doctors take includes the statement "First, do no harm". What country has the corporations that are creating the architecture to allow the Chinese government to censor material? The answer is the US - Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL, Cisco and other corporations have been who have implemented this censorship for the Chinese government. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me to say you are setting up "free zones" in "free countries" to help evade censorship, when the people who control the capital in the US are the ones who have implemented the censorship in China. If this were a free country, the obvious answer would be to just have these corporations stop implementing the censorship in China. Instead, that, which is the only solution that makes any sense, is not even thought of, and instead these PR "free zones" are set up, so that Chinese people can attempt to evade (at their own personal risk) the censorship which is set up by US corporations, including the US corporations like Yahoo who helped China hunt down dissidents like Shi Tao. This stuff is a joke, if you want to stop censorship in China, stop implementing it in the US.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by massivefoot (922746)
      Regrettably, given the influence of business in modern government, this is unlikely to happen any time soon. The best we can do is attempt to ensure that we are responsible for as little money as possible making its way to such countries. Need to us AOL messenger service? Use a third party programme to avoid any advertising provided by AOL. Need software made by any of the above? Use an open source alternative. Or a pirated version. It's more moral than giving any money to then.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by RexRhino (769423)
      Oh knock it off with the "EVIL CORPORATIONS!!! EVIL UNITED STATES!!!". You know if the U.S. declared a technology embargo to China, self rightous dweebs like yourself would be all up in arms that "Corporations are trying to intimidate the soveriegn nation of China and undermine socialism", just like you already do with Cuba! Censorship existed in far greater extremes in China back in the day when China was as anti-American and anti-Free-Market as yourself. Tell me the U.S. corporation that was making censor
      • "Oh knock it off with the "EVIL CORPORATIONS!!! EVIL UNITED STATES!!!". You know if the U.S. declared a technology embargo to China, self rightous dweebs like yourself would be all up in arms that "Corporations are trying to intimidate the soveriegn nation of China and undermine socialism", just like you already do with Cuba!"

        Nice strawman. You have no idea whether or not GP is pro-socialist, or against the Cuban embargo. I haven't heard *anybody* advocating a US government embargo of China.

        What I have h
    • Wouldn't preventing the transfer of filtering software, in itself be a form of censorship?
  • I think that most people who rant about China filtering the content of their internet users are forgetting one thing.... China is not our country. They have the right to run their society any way they see fit. We tend to look at the world in a particular way, and if it doesn't match our ideal of the way things are supposed to be, we think we have the God given right to change it. Do we really have that right? How would we feel if an outside interest group decided that we needed to be changed and that our la
    • "we think we have the God given right to change it"
      How about leaving God out of it, these are the affairs of men.

      "China has it's laws and their citizens have to obey those laws, just as we must obey the laws in our own country"
      Except and unless those laws are wrong, then we and they have an obligation to change or violate them. You won't see a change though unless someone is willing to violate them.

      "Giving the average Chinese citizen the ability to circumvent those laws is not doing them a service since the
        • You asked people in a repressive, authoritative state how they liked it? Where, in this very topic, they are known not to have access to information that goes against what their leaders tell them. Where they could get thrown in jail for saying they don't agree with the state. And thus, your proof that they like their state policies is that they said yes, when you, an English speaking tourist, asked if they liked their government.
    • The media is lapping this up. I just read about it on a blog for a CITY TV technology journalist, and was going to submit it to Slashdot, when I saw it had just been posted.

      I used Tor for a while, but I think I'll try Psiphon and see if it's better.
    • Give people the tools to make their own changes, instead of forcing change on them.


      I'll probably get punished with modding down for pointing out the truth, but how would that have got us control of the country and its oil? Not that the way we tried worked either.

    • Re: (Score:2, Redundant)

      by PFI_Optix (936301)
      My first thought:

      "Great. Another thing we're going to have to figure out how to block at the school. This is just what we need: another app to help middle school students surf porn sites."

      Yes, it has it's legitimate humanity-improving uses, but any kid in the US who reads /. just found a better way to circumvent their schools' filters.

      And do they really think China won't figure out how to stop this?

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by itlurksbeneath (952654)

        Yep - I can think of at least one legitimate use for me. Working for a large nameless and faceless corporation, they do content filtering on the firewall and sometimes some suprising things get blocked. The FreeTDS [freetds.org] site was blocked for some dumb reason, for example. Being a UNIX system administrator, I do a lot of research on security and hacking methods (I wear a white hat, for sure) and frequently get blocked by the firewall because I'm looking up stuff on sites it labels as "hacking related". I mean, d

      • If they dont like how things are where they live they are human and they can leave and come here to the USA it seems we let people live here for free anyways!

        Err, which USA do you live in? Nothing here is free, not even speech. And it's not the Dweeb Police (is that like the fashion police??) that tell you what to do - it's the lawmakers who write the laws, the police just enforce them.

        That and I dont use windows so this makes it much easier to avoid security meausures..

        Err, how is it easier to avoi
      • "despite the best efforts of fascist governments like those of China, Germany and the USA"

        Excuse me, could you deliver a USA example while you hide behind your A/C moniker?

        I agree that nearly every government in the world imposes some sort of censorship in some form of communication, I wouldn't put the de and us in the same boat as China.

        (and yes every pun and innuendo in that statement was intentional).

    • Greetings.

      The problem with TOR is the software you use to find proxy servers is also accessible to the people who want to stop you from accessing them. It is their full-time job to know more about proxies than you. That's why technology is key: Only you and your Psiphon host know of the Internet address. By the way, is proxy circumvention (avoidance) illegal where you live?

      It is not only China that is censoring. There is a site-blocker proxy where I live and work. (I am an American by the way.) In add

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