Internet Censorship and Circumvention

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DevynCJohnson

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The Internet connects numerous devices such as laptops, phones, tablets, and more. This can be advantageous since people can communicate and transfer data/info across large distances and over a wide audience very quickly. However, with every good comes bad and with every free resource comes dictators. The Internet poses many privacy issues and strict censorship. Thankfully, there are ways around these issues.

Basic Concept
Internet Censorship refers to the control of accessible and permitted content on the Internet. This means citizens of the area cannot view or access particular websites, and the people are not allowed to upload/publish certain content and ideas. For instance, China blocks many Tibetan-related content, info on the Dalai Lama, and many other topics. China's censorship is sometimes referred to as "The Great Firewall". As another example, Iran blocks numerous sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, and almost anything that may go against the strict government's rules, religion, or philosophies. However, North Korea bans Internet access to nearly all of their citizens. The few people that are permitted to use the Internet are closely monitored.

Similarly, "mass surveillance" is the act of monitoring behavior and activities of most or all of a population. This may include monitoring Internet activity and data, covert listening (such as "bugs" or hacking/tapping phones), remotely accessing computers, viewing/accessing emails and email accounts, etc.

The Internet censorship of a country is upheld by a department of the government called the "Internet Police". The Internet police may be its own governmental department/branch or the duties may be carried out by another department (such as the communications department). For example, India's Internet police has its own department called the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In). In contrast, the Chinese Internet police is the Internet Society of China (ISC) which manages more than just censorship. However, the ISC gets governmental backup from the Ministry of Information Industry and other government departments. In addition, arrests, interrogations, and penalties are carried out by the Chinese Police Department and their legal system.

FUN FACT: A Chinese citizen that makes a bad comment above the Communist government can be imprisoned for up to three years.

People can get the latest updates about the Great Firewall of China from an organization called "GreatFire" (https://en.greatfire.org/). GreatFire helps Chinese residents circumvent the Great Firewall.
https://en.greatfire.org/

Technological Concepts
The censorship is performed in many ways. The government can require Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to not allow certain traffic and websites. The Internet infrastructure within the country can contain DNS servers and routers that lack or block connections to certain domain names and IP addresses. In the Internet infrastructure, firewalls can block ports, protocols, IP addresses, domain names, etc. Also, special nodes (devices/computers) in the infrastructure can be packet sniffers which look for certain content. DNS servers and routers can keep track of the activity of IP addresses so that the government knows what the citizens are viewing. Some countries may force or court-order a website owner to give the government the server logs and the user login information for all registered users.

Escaping Censorship
There are many ways computer users can retain their rights and freedom. There are special programs that are easily obtainable and usable.

Psiphon is a circumvention program that allows users who live in countries considered to be "enemies of the Internet" to access the restricted/forbidden websites and content. This open-source (GNU GPL license) cross-platform software uses VPN, HTTP Proxy, and SSH to give the user privacy and get past the censorship.

Tor is a open-source browser that protects people's privacy and offers security. Also, Tor is the gateway to the Darknet which is different from the "Surface Net". The browser is available for all systems including Windows, Linux (and Android), OS X, iOS, and various Unixoid systems. Tor is an acronym for "The Onion Router". Tor networks are made up of "Tor Relays". When a Tor client connects to a server, a random path between the client and server is created among the Tor relays. The data is encrypted many times. Each relay decrypts the data once to get information as to where to send the data next. Then, the next relay decrypts another layer and sends the data to the next relay until the data reaches the client or server. Since the data is encrypted multiple times, the data is often compared to an onion with many layers (hence the name). This layered concept is called "Onion Routing".

GNUnet is an open-source decentralized peer-to-peer (P2P) networking framework. This framework offers privacy and censorship-free file sharing. Many communication protocols and transport methods/algorithms are supported as well as link encryption. GNUnet supports two network topologies - mesh and friend-to-friend (F2F). Also, GNUnet uses Uniform resource identifiers rather than IP addresses. In addition, GNUnet uses the GNU Name System (GNS) instead of the Domain Name System (DNS). This allows users to create their own master zone. The GNS server maps the data into the DNS namespace under the ".gnu" top-level domain. The GNS lookups are completed by DHT (part of GNUnet). All of these features make privacy and censorship-resistance possible.
https://gnunet.org/

FUN FACT: On the GNUnet, the URI for the GPL license is gnunet://fs/chk/9E4MDN4VULE8KJG6U1C8FKH5HA8C5CHSJTILRTTPGK8MJ6VHORERHE68JU8Q0FDTOH1DGLUJ3NLE99N0ML0N9PIBAGKG7MNPBTT6UKG.1I823C58O3LKS24LLI9KB384LH82LGF9GUQRJHACCUINSCQH36SI4NF88CMAET3T3BHI93D4S0M5CC6MVDL1K8GFKVBN69Q6T307U6O.17992

An alternative to GNUnet is Freenet. However, Freenet can also publish "freesites". A freesite is a website that is only accessible through Freenet. Freenet is cross-platform and is written in Java. The "Freenet" is similar to the regular Internet. However, Freenet (the program) uses different protocols and algorithms to access the Freenet (network) than what regular browsers use to access the Internet (or "Surface Net").
https://freenetproject.org/
https://wiki.freenetproject.org/

Another alternative to Freenet and GNUnet is the Invisible Internet Project (I2P). This software is open-source and cross-platform. I2P supports file transfers, websites, chatting, email, etc. (just like Freenet). Websites on the I2P network (not part of the Surface Net) are called "Eepsites" and their URLs end in ".i2p". Instead of DNS, I2P uses "netDB".
https://geti2p.net/

NOTE: A large list of DarkWeb links can be found at http://dcjtech.info/topic/darkweb-link-list/

Cryptocurrency can be used to anonymously transfer money for goods and services on the Internet, even across political borders. Examples of cryptocurrency include Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dash, PPCoin, etc.
Cryptocurrency - http://www.linux.org/threads/cryptocurrency.7978/

To prevent spying/tapping through a webcam, run the command "modprobe -r uvcvideo" (with Root privileges) which will remove the webcam kernel module from memory. This effect is temporary; after the next reboot, the module will be reloaded.

Another method for transmitting forbidden/restricted content is to use steganography which is the practice of hiding the "real" or primary data inside of "fake" or carrier data. For instance, by using steganographic programs (apps that apply steganography), users in China can transfer Dalai Lama related content inside JPEG files. The censorship monitors would see acceptable pictures (perhaps of Chinese food) and not the Dalai Lama data that is inside of the JPEG file. The recipient can then "extract" the hidden data from the carrier data. Examples of steganographic programs include Wnstorm (http://www.nic.funet.fi/pub/crypt/steganography/) and QuickStego (Windows only) (http://quickcrypto.com/free-steganography-software.html). One of the best steganographic programs for Linux is Steghide (http://steghide.sourceforge.net/).

Other ways of circumventing censorship is to use cached pages (from Google, if Google is accessible). This can be done by typing "cache:some_blocked_url" into the search bar. Also, checkout www.archive.org for archived webpages. In addition, www.web2mail.com can be used to email someone a webpage (with or without images). RSS aggregators can also be used in some cases.

Some users may need to try using a different DNS server.

Other users may benefit from using proxy servers, reverse proxy servers, or Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). Also, be sure to use HTTPS and/or tunneling, if possible.

Some censorship blocks domain names rather than IP addresses. If this is the case, then access the website via IP address or try alternative forms of the domain name (such as with or without "www", an ending slash, "http://", or a combination of all of those).

By combining many of these tricks, citizens in oppressive governments can still access web content despite the censorship. Just remember to be careful, clear cache and temporary files, encrypt all data (network packets, hard-drives, files, etc.), and use common sense.

Further Reading
 

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VERY informative and well written! I have a question though: Why doesn't psiphon have a linux installation?

P.S. In case I die tomorrow, there's something I found out about our dwindling choices in this country (the U.S.), our isp's are no exception. Anyway, once I tested a theory for a few years (three I think) in which I moved through the states (mostly the south and middle states) and in florida specifically I obtained first FIOS, then dsl...there were results I was after (like how the hell is my server being hacked so easily when I was following all the iptables and fail2ban instructions given by the pros). I picked up shop and moved all the way up to Springfield Ohio and was surprised to find that similar incidents were occurring (having first banned all my ties to the social networks and even the old email addresses which I simply dropped)....this time, in Ohio I first obtained cable internet through the only monopoly choice we have, I put the connection on surveillance, then I simultaneously obtained dsl and even the way over priced satellite (was extorted $300+ for that dish that now serves a different purpose in my backyard).....

To make a long story short, our isp's are our weakest link these days. Nothing is absolute and ethics aren't necessarily on the top of the monopoly's lists of increasing capital as they capitalize on the masses here.

Okay...that was off topic, huh?
 
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@Kenny Hendrick , thanks for sharing. Your comment is not off-topic; it is still related to my article.

If the server is using the same network card (and therefore the same MAC address), then the server will still be found. IP packets contain the MAC address and IP address. If you move to a different geographical location and use a different ISP (and thus IP address), but continue to use the same machine (or at least the network card), then the MAC address can be found in the packets. Afterwards, the new IP address can be taken from the packet.

If the server is using different hardware on a different ISP, but the same domain name (i.e. "linux.org"), then the IP address is easy to obtain (execute "dig linux.org"). Also, people can legally query the DNS servers (execute "whois linux.org") for info.

If you would like details on how to fix your problem, feel free to ask in the forums. Be sure to provide details about the server and tag me (@DevynCJohnson) so that I can help. There are many ways to better secure a system. Sometimes, the "IPtable Pros" are wrong or things change. Also, the server software may contain bugs that the hackers understood.
 

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