So the U.S. Air Force and the People's Republic of China have something in common - they both ban blogs - according to a recent Wired article titled "Air Force Blocks Access to Many Blogs".
Given the length of time, and amount of money, that the Chinese administration has limited access to blogs with the Great Firewall of China perhaps the U.S. Air Force should ask them for some help.
Hilariously (sic) the article goes on to say this:
At least one senior Air Force official calls the squeeze so "utterly stupid, it makes me want to scream."
It's not hard to see that this is an almost impossible task, it's an Internet technology security arms race between the users and there respective administrations.
The same senior Air Force official also identifies some of this saying:
"I'm certain that by blocking blogs for official use, our airmen will never, ever be able to read them on their own home computers, so we have indeed saved them from a contaminating influence. Sorry, didn't mean to drip sarcasm on your rug."
Frankly people using there home computers, and own Internet connectivity, is just one of the many issues the U.S. Air Force will have 'policing' such a policy, never mind them tunneling traffic over secure connections (such as a VPN or SSL), using anonymous networks (like TOR), access points and proxy servers, or even using software like FreeGate which evolved as a direct result of the "ban" imposed by the Chinese Government.
What's worse is the idea that this policy might drive traffic to go 'under ground', potentially into secure tunnels, meaning that the actual traffic becomes extremely difficult to monitor for any 'dangerous' anomalies, discrepancies or even a real and genuine security breach.
However a rational argument has never stopped a behemoth before, so expect an inordinate amount of money to be spent attempting to get this to work.
Related links:
- Wired article "Air Force Blocks Access to Many Blogs":
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/02/air-force-banni.html - The Register article "China targets blogs":
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/06/30/china_blogs/ - The Register article "China pulls plug on blogs":
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/03/19/china_pulls_plug_on_blogs/ - Wikipedia article "Great Firewall of China":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Firewall_of_China - Wikipedia article "Internet censorship in the People's Republic of China":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_the_People's_Republic_of_China
Now, you should know there is not much difference between two governments (China and US). I am sure many government are filtering the internet in certain ways, but US media is mainly interested in China.
Posted by dfan on February 28, 2008 at 07:05 AM GMT #