ZDNet Government

July 2nd, 2009

Green Dam's day not done

Posted by Richard Koman @ July 2, 2009 @ 1:01 AM

Categories: Government technology

Tags: Thomson Reuters Corp., Ed Black, PC, Manufacturer, Desktops, Manufacturing, Government, Hardware, Richard Koman

Chinese students were out partying in celebration of the news that China has delayed its mandate that PCs sold in the country must have intalled some spyware named Green Dam Youth Escort, according to Reuters. “We are very happy because we got what we wanted,” a young artist said.

Meanwhile, trade organizations believe that their ability to get the Commerce Department involved was key to the victory. Ed Black, president of the Washington-based Computer and Communications Industry Association, told Reuters in a separate report.

“This shows that when U.S. trade officials get involved, they get results,” Black said in a statement sent by email.

But before you get too excited about the Green Dam backdown, consider this statement from a Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), reported in The China Daily:

“The government will definitely carry on the directive on Green Dam. It’s just a matter of time.”

Here comes the face-saving. The choice to delay was not because of US trade pressure, or civil liberties complaints, or becuase the software was a gross violator of copyright. No, it was only because “some computer manufacturers needed more time,” the paper reported.

“What will happen is that some PC manufacturers will have it included with their PC packages sooner than the others,” he said. “But there is no definite deadline at the moment.”

June 30th, 2009

Exclusive: Proof that Green Dam ripped off Solid Oak in 2006

Posted by Richard Koman @ June 30, 2009 @ 7:03 AM

Categories: Censorship, China

Tags: Software, File, Datapth.exe, Datapth06, Tools & Techniques, Management, Richard Koman

Yesterday, I pointed out that China’s Green Dam Youth Escort software purloins a 2006 version of Solid Oak’s CyberSitter net-nanny software and that the developer - Jinhui- was involved in drafting specifications for “parental control software” also in 2006. It seems that this software has been around since ‘06.

(This morning, the Chinese news agency Xinhua issued a two-line statement that the July 1 deadline has been delayed.)

Solid Oak CEO Brian Milburn wrote with further proof that the software lifts from the 2006 version. He’s obtained from Jinhui servers two .exe files that prove the current software was purloined from Solid Oak in 2005 and files added in 2006. You can download a zip of the files here. Here are screen shots of the files in 7zip:

CyberSitter files in Green Dam build, circa Dec. 2005



Additional files added to CyberSitter files in Green Dam build from 2006

Brian explains:

This contains 2 files, datapth.exe and datapth06.exe. You can extract these files safely. They are executable archives. I used 7zip to open the exe files and look at the contents.

Datapth.exe shows all our files in the Green Dam encrypted format. It dates to December 2005.

Datapth06 has the same files, plus 6 Green Dam specific files. These files date from January to September 2006.

Both of these are original untouched Green Dam files from the period. They were obtained from the Green Dam makers servers at www.zzjinhui.com. These have since been removed from their servers.

These are the real thing and even better proof of the time period involved. It looks like they were real active on this portion of the program around 12/2005 to 1/2006.

June 30th, 2009

Breaking news: Green Dam Day delayed

Posted by Richard Koman @ June 30, 2009 @ 6:39 AM

Categories: Censorship, China

Tags:

On the eve of destruction, China has delayed Green Dam Day.

Reuters reports that China will delay an order that all PCs sold in the country come equipped with Green Dam-Youth Escort. The government had set July 1 as the day.

[Add 1] But the Ministry of Information and Industry Technology says it will supply schools and Internet cafes with the software after July 1, the official news agency Xinhua announced. The agency will “keep on soliciting opinions to perfect the pre-installation plan,” Xinhua added.

The move comes under heavy pressure from the U.S. government, an international collection of hardware manufacturers, and anti-censorship activities.

California-based Solid Oak claims the software rips off its CyberSitter software and has threatened action in China and the U.S.

June 29th, 2009

PC makers ask China Premier to stop Green Dam

Posted by Richard Koman @ June 29, 2009 @ 10:24 AM

Categories: Censorship, China

Tags:

Tech business organizations around the world have signed onto an extraordinary letter to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, asking for executive clemency from China’s Green Dam-Youth Escort software, The Wall Street Journal reports. The letter says in part:

[Green Dam] raises serious concerns for us and seems to run counter to China’s important goal of becoming a vibrant and dynamic information-based society. … The Green Dam mandate raises significant questions of security, privacy, system reliability, the free flow of information and user choice.

Sony appears to be shipping the software and Taiwan-based Acer said it will. “We have no choice,” a spokesman said.

It’s unusual for so many manufacturers - from the U.S. to Europe to Japan to Taiwan - to sign onto a direct letter to the premier, but one source said Green Dam is that important.

Given the seriousness we attach to the myriad concerns involving the Green Dam mandate and with the deadline looming, we felt we needed to direct those concerns to the highest levels of the Chinese government.

Still, no large company is refusing to comply — which likely puts them at risk from a suit by CyberSitter developer, Solid Oak, whose proprietary code clearly was stolen by Green Dam developers. The government has yet to deal with this legal issue, but if they grant immunity to the developer, Jinjui, it could leave foreign PC makers exposed to liability in both Chinese and U.S. courts.

June 29th, 2009

Green Dam Watch: Software dates from '06, Sony is shipping, vendors will uninstall.

Posted by Richard Koman @ June 29, 2009 @ 7:29 AM

Categories: Censorship, China

Tags: Software, Sony Corp., McKinnon, Tools & Techniques, Management, Richard Koman

Item: Green Dam Youth Escort - the Chinese net nanny software that must be installed on PCs sold in China starting Wednesday - is largely stolen from a 2006 version of Solid Oak’s CyberSitter software. For proof, see this post.

Item: Rebecca MacKinnon posts two documents that purport to show that specifications for “Internet Parental Control Software Based on PC” were drafted in 2006 by a group including Jinhui System Engineering Co., the developers of Green Dam.

Is it a fair inference that Jinhui built the software in 2006? I think yes. But the question remains, why the order to install it now?

Read the rest of this entry »

June 27th, 2009

Confirmed: Developer of software stolen for Green Dam is under attack

Posted by Richard Koman @ June 27, 2009 @ 11:30 AM

Categories: Censorship, China

Tags: Software, Developer, Attack, Solid Oak, E-mail, Online Communications, Richard Koman

Yesterday I posted that staff at Solid Oak were targeted with attack emails by sources unknown. Solid Oak is the maker of CyberSitter — which was clearly purloined by the developers of Green Dam.

At that point it wasn’t clear that the questionable emails were definitely targeted at the company, but now marketing director Jenna DiPasquale writes to confirm that the emails are an direct attack on Solid Oak.

We worked with Microsoft to analyze them, and they were able to confirm that the attachments were attacks that were specifically designed for us. We found several other emails caught in our filters that were similar, yet individualized. It’s obvious someone sent these by hand. We are not definitively certain but there is evidence that they are Chinese in origin.

The FBI has been contacted.

June 26th, 2009

Swedish court: Pirate Bay judge not biased

Posted by Richard Koman @ June 26, 2009 @ 7:07 AM

Categories: International, RIAA, p2p

Tags: Court, Advertising & Promotion, Marketing, Richard Koman

Was the judge in The Pirate Bay trial biased? After all, it turned out after the trial, although he didn’t disclose it at the time, that Judge Tomas Norstöm was a member of several pro-copyright organizations. Is that enough to earn TPB a retrial?

Absolutely not, a Swedish appeals court ruled yesterday, according to a Swedish report.

“We have reached the conclusion that we do not agree with the conflict of interest claim,” appeals court judge Anders Eka told news agency TT. “For a judge to back the principles on which this legilsation rests cannot be considered bias,” the court wrote in its ruling.

Read the rest of this entry »

June 26th, 2009

China's porn obsession not just a coverup for political repression

Posted by Richard Koman @ June 26, 2009 @ 6:42 AM

Categories: Censorship, China

Tags:

The thing that stinks - to Western noses - about this whole Green Dam story is the idea that China wants to go to all this trouble, to the point of having a serious showdown with the U.S. over it, over porn. I mean, porn … if people want it, they’ll get it. And who cares if they want it, really? So you think, this is really about political repression, about imprisoning dissidents, that sort of thing.

But then you read this New York Times article and realize, for the Chinese government there really is no difference. Political dissent and pornography are two sides of the same coin — negative forces that disrupt “wholesome society.” That’s why the same ministry deals with pornography and political speech.

The same public security agencies charged with fighting pornography are responsible for suppressing illegal political activity, said Nicholas Bequelin, a researcher in Hong Kong for Human Rights Watch. The government’s statistics for seizures of illegal publications tend to include both pornographic and political documents, he noted.

“The two are closely associated,” Mr. Bequelin said. “These campaigns work hand in hand.”

Read the rest of this entry »

June 25th, 2009

Who is attacking Solid Oak, whose code was stolen for Green Dam?

Posted by Richard Koman @ June 25, 2009 @ 3:41 PM

Categories: Censorship, China

Tags: China, CyberSitter, Solid Oak, E-mail, Online Communications, Richard Koman

Check out this document from Solid Oak Software, makers of CyberSitter. It’s a comparison of CyberSitter with Green Dam-Youth Escort, the software China is insisting PC makers start installing on July 1.

The file show just how similar CyberSitter’s .dll files and Green Dam’s .dat files are and how similar the code is. Green Dam even has an encrypted file that turns out to be a list of CYBERsitter serial numbers “posted at various illegal “crack” sites and is distributed as part of the CYBERsitter package so that the program can refuse to register if one of these serial numbers is used,” Solid Oak says.

There’s not really any doubt that Green Dam is ripping off CyberSitter. The company sent cease-and-desist letters to every U.S. PC manufacturer but Apple (the Green Dam edict appears to include Apple but there’s clearly no Mac version out there; perhaps that’s because CyberSitter is a Windows-only program!) Come July 1, marketing manager Jenna DiPasquale told me in a phone interview just now, Solid Oak will commence lawsuits in the U.S. and China.
Read the rest of this entry »

June 25th, 2009

Britain hires hackers for intel squad

Posted by Richard Koman @ June 25, 2009 @ 8:29 AM

Categories: Government technology

Tags:

The hackers are coming, the hackers are coming.

Britain is hiring ex-hackers as a security cadre to protect the country’s computer systems from cyber attacks, AP reports.

[Anti-terrorism minister] Alan West said the technology-savvy staff will join efforts to trace the source of — and prevent — cyber attacks on Britain’s government, businesses and individuals. The country also will develop its capability to wage cyber warfare against the country’s foes, he said. Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced the creation of the unit Thursday as he published an updated national security strategy, detailing Britain’s response to global terrorism and emerging threats.

West said the “slightly naughty” make the best anti-hacker.

“You need youngsters who are actually deep into this stuff — and they really get into it. If they’ve been slightly naughty, very often they really enjoying stopping others,” said West, a former head of Britain’s defense intelligence staff.