Once again we have governments feeling threatened by their own citizens. Bloggers beware I am afraid there is much more of this to come. Know what you are doing and where threats may come from – there are ways to blog safely using a pseudonym. Get educated and stay safe.
The Malaysian government has warned it could use tough anti-terrorism laws against bloggers who insult Islam or the countrys king.
BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Malaysia cracks down on bloggers
Reporters Without Borders – Bloggers and Cyber-dissidents Guide
This video is a great introduction to the need for security in the NGO sector and also covers the “NGO in a box – Security Edition tool”. While I have not used the tool, I have been very impressed with the work being done by FrontLineDefenders.org and would like to learn more about the specifics of this tool.
There is also some great introductory content on the FrontLineDefenders page.
This publication is dedicated to all human rights defenders, continuing their difficult and honest work, also on the Internet. Some of these people are in prison due to their activities on the Internet.
Mohammed Abbou is serving a 3,5 year prison term in Tunisia for publishing online an article that compared Tunisian prisons to Abu Ghraib.
Digital Security and Privacy for Human Rights Defenders
YouTube – NGO in a Box – Security Edition
While censorship of the freedom of expression or political views is often highlighted at ironcove.net, there are times when content filtering is a very important tool for Nonprofits organizations. Particularly those who may have public access computers and volunteer staff.
A solid “computer use policy” is important as can be content filtering software.
A content filter is a piece of hardware or software that acts a shield between the Internet and a user’s computer, blocking access from potentially objectionable or offensive material.
Understanding Content Filtering: An FAQ for Nonprofits
IFEX have some information about censorship in China, with an interesting quote from a government official. It is all so matter of fact in the way he explains the shutdown.
RSF/IFEX – Reporters Without Borders has condemned the Shanghai Information Bureaus decision to shut down a literary forum run by poet Lu Yang. This came after the Chinese government blocked access to Israeli literary website http://www.shvoong.com for its 20,000 Chinese users in early July 2007.
IFEX :: Cyber police shut down ’suspect’ literary website
William Kamkwamba has found himself become an internet celebrity pretty much overnight. Read through his blog and some of the background he really has taken the future by the hands. The windmill that started it all. Inspiring Stuff!
Boing Boing has some related comments and links revolving around the Vanity Fair Africa issue and Ted Global conference.
Secure your email and keep your software up to date. Running an alternate operating system such as Ubuntu can help to reduce your exposure to these sorts of attacks. Though as with all operating systems it is still vitally important that you keep your systems up to date, using the automatic update feature.
On December 1, 2005, two e-mail messages were sent from a computer in Western Australia to members of two different human rights organizations. Each e-mail message carried a Microsoft Word document with a previously unknown exploit that would take control of the targeted person’s computer and open up a beachhead into the group’s network.
SecurityFocus – Targeted Trojan attacks on the rise
Worldchanging.com has an excellent article covering the tools you can use to publish securely and anonymously.
Indeed, Tor is a hugely useful tool for people in China trying to evade the Great Firewall, or for people trying to publish online with a persistent, untraceable psuedonym. Roger was interested in meeting a group of dissidents to understand what their needs are and how future versions of Tor could be more useful in enabling access to information and free speech in repressive nations.
The session was a real education for both of us. I’ve given three of these workshops in the past year, but this was the first with attendees all focused on the same nation, facing the same constellation of problems. We outlined many of the topics covered in the Secure NGO in a Box CD-ROM (which we may need to translate into the native language of this country – more on NGO in a Box here), covering disk wiping (Eraser), encrypted storage (BestCrypt), password management (Password Safe), as well as topics I covered in a training with Nart Villeneuve earlier this year: web filtering, filter circumvention using open and anonymized proxies, and secure publishing. Roger gave a great overview of the state of the art in cryptography, a detailed introduction to Tor and future directions for development, and an introduction to secure messaging through Off the Record Messaging.
Using Technology to Protect Free Speech in Dangerous Places
The government of Pakistan blocked access to hundreds of blogspot.com-hosted blogs on March 1.
Pakistani bloggers are appealing for help, and ask fellow bloggers overseas to join them in condeming this act of internet censorship.
Pakistan blocks access to blogspot.com
Ironcove.net is currently operating on a skeleton basis while the main news hound is out of the country for 6 months “on assignment”. News will be slow for the next 5 months or so, but please continue to use and enjoy the resources of ironcove.net.
Boingboing is covering an ongoing story of government authorities raids on newspaper and television offices in Kenya. The attack on press freedoms is being covered by a Kenyan Blogger.
