Yes, a long crazy title – there's alot to cover. I haven't got much to say, but these are some interesting articles you might enjoy about possible Chinese hackers trying to get into the White House, Google blaming China, Baidu profiting from it (and denying it), and of course Gmail being a less and less safe form of email as it comes under frequent attacks
FBI investigates Gmail attacks
Gmail hackers go after White House
I haven't been able to access my Gmail in China for about a week now. Now before I say that Gmail is blocked in China, I realize that different places in China produce different results for different people, different computers, and different operation systems.
I've kept up on lots of the VPN services that unblock sites in China, and even those are a bit shaky – it seems that what works in Guangdong doesn't necessarily work in Xinjiang. But that's another story.
So a lot of users report that they can access Gmail from China in one place, but not the other. I'm just one of those guys. For example, with my home computer, running Windows XP SP3, using the Firefox 4 Internet browser (English version), I have about a 30 percent success rate as of May 2011. That means that I'm able to access my Gmail account in China only 30 percent of the time (when I'm not using my VPN). Of that 30 percent, only about ten percent of the time am I able to access Gmail in it's full form. Most of the time I've got to view it in basic HTML just open my mail.
At my job it's a totally different story. When I check my Gmail (or attempt to, per say) on the computer at the office, I get about a 5 percent success rate, if that counts for anything at all. All of the time I've got to use HTML mode, and most of the time I can't even get Google to search properly. They are using a Chinese version of Internet Explorer – may IE 6 or 7 I'm not sure. It's miserable. The good news is that I've got to check out Bing and Yahoo sometimes – an I've found out that my site is pretty much invisible on those search engines – bummer. It must be because they censor their search results, because a lot of the articles I've written over the years are also unavailable.
So I use my VPN most of the time. For me, it's matter of convenience. If I have to wait for five minutes for the page to load every time I access Gmail in China (which would be several times a day for me), it would add up to HOURS of waiting time per year. Maybe even days – just waiting for my stupid Gmail account to load. So I just connect to my VPN account and it a few seconds I can access my Gmail account normally.
You can check out some of the VPN services I recommend HERE or browse the site.
I know it's kind of late, but I though I'd make an update for the year 2011 so far. Things we've seen at Unblock Facebook in China during 2011
China Hacking in to Google (Dec 2010)
Revolution in Egypt (25 Jan)
Night Dragon Hacks into Oil Companies Servers ( 10 Feb)
Jasmine Revolution (20 Feb)
China Blocks PPTP L2TP protocols (16 March)
Return of 12vpn and Strong vpn (April)
It's been a crazy year so far for Unblock Facebook in China! I'm working to keep you updated!
Hey I just found this article about the Night Dragon – Chinese hackers getting into Western Oil companies computer systems and stealing gigabytes of sensitive info. Scary stuff.
How is Astrill vpn workin out for you guys?
Gmail is f*ed as ever. I'm to the point where I never turn my vpn off at all. Any time I update the site or check my mail China's got something to say.
Here's another very interesting article on censorring phone conversations. The guy says "protest" twice and got cut off. Ridiculous. Sorry, it's on Blogger so I'll paste the good parts here.
From Reality Lenses
You thought that the tension between China and Google couldn't be higher? Think again. Google is still fighting for freedom and transparency, while China is doing the exact opposite:
(Ars Technica) — Google has awarded $1 million to Georgia Tech researchers so that they can develop simple tools to detect Internet throttling, government censorship, and other "transparency" problems.
That money will cover two years of work at Georgia Tech, with an additional $500,000 extension possible if Google wants an extra year of development. At the end of the project, the Georgia Tech team hopes to provide "a suite of Web-based, Internet-scale measurement tools that any user around the world could access for free. With the help of these tools, users could determine whether their ISPs are providing the kind of service customers are paying for, and whether the data they send and receive over their network connections is being tampered with by governments and/or ISPs."
(NYT) — If anyone wonders whether the Chinese government has tightened its grip on electronic communications since protests began engulfing the Arab world, Shakespeare may prove instructive.
A Beijing entrepreneur, discussing restaurant choices with his fiancée over their cellphones last week, quoted Queen Gertrude’s response to Hamlet: “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” The second time he said the word “protest,” her phone cut off.
He spoke English, but another caller, repeating the same phrase on Monday in Chinese over a different phone, was also cut off in midsentence.
A host of evidence over the past several weeks shows that Chinese authorities are more determined than ever to police cellphone calls, electronic messages, e-mail and access to the Internet in order to smother any hint of antigovernment sentiment. In the cat-and-mouse game that characterizes electronic communications here, analysts suggest that the cat is getting bigger, especially since revolts began to ricochet through the Middle East and North Africa, and homegrown efforts to organize protests in China began to circulate on the Internet about a month ago.
Enjoy
I've just complete quite a few site updates. After that crazy period when vpn companies were dropping like flies I did a lot of quick-fix site changes including putting big signs in bold and crossing out prices and stuff like that. Ugly.
But now I'm working with a new blog editor so I'm going to try and pimp stuff up with a bit of color, font, and text size changes. HTML is such a pain sometimes, but the new blog editor makes it a bit easier.
Part of the update was including 12vpn back on the roster. I know, they've gotten pretty expensive compared to what they used to cost, but their service is still as good as it was before, and seeing as they're now back online in China, and users in China can use their service, I think it's important to note their awesomeness.
Is anyone having trouble accessing their paypal accounts with a vpn? Some guy left me a not saying he's having issues but I can't tell if it's spam or not. I've never had a problem,
Funny thing about having a blog is that you get SOOOOOO much spam. Sorry if some of your comments get lots, I get hundreds of pieces of spam every day.
Will keep you guys updated.
Well, it’s March 30th, just over ten days after the vpn blocking bonanza on the sixteenth of this month. I’ll admit, I joined in frenzy.
OMG! NO MORE VPN’s!
Well, it turns out to not be so bad. Most of the companies that were blocked are back online and pretty much the same as before. As far as I know Witopia is still down, but as usual, there are reports in places that it’s still accessible.
12vpn has finally come back online with a new get-up, a new price, and a US only option. Unfortunately their previously crazy cheap prices are no-more.
There are now rumours that China is using invisible ninja’s to access our gmail accounts. OH NO! I guess they’ll find out all the secrets I’m hiding in my Gmail account!
Not.
Oh no! I’ll warn my JR buddies to use hotmail instead.
Not.
Li Wufeng, chief of the Information Office Internet Affairs Bureau of China’s State Council, said there have “never been any issues involving the access of legitimate VPN services that are used by companies to enhance security”
I wonder how they distinguish the difference…
China attempts spying on Gmail accounts – The Guardian
China Blocking Gmail and Secure Vpn’s – Australian Business Traveler
I can’t remember if I posted this the other day, but Strongvpn has gone back onlie. 12vpn and Witopia are still blocked. Freedur and Skydur are still up as well. I really wouldn’t try anything else. Maybe I’m just partial to bold colors and simple sites.
I’ve been unable to access my Gmail account without changing it to basic HTML. Maybe it’s a problem with my computer or their switch to https encryption.
A very flawed (though sounds nice) arguement about why vpn’s are sure to survive as soon as the Chinese government realizes they’re wrong
The VPN-debate: why China’s internet censorship needs to fail
A great idea to make money but also ridiculously flawed logic article
Just keepin ya up to date