<IT WORLD> Milk bad, snow on Mars OK
By Martin J Young
HUA HIN, Thailand - An extensive Internet and text message surveillance system
has been discovered in China by a group of Canadian computer security
researchers and human-rights activists.
The system monitors and archives Internet chat and text messaging
communications containing politically charged keywords. Customers of Tom-Skype,
a joint venture between a Chinese wireless operator and eBay, which owns Skype,
have been subjected to monitoring and filtration of their Internet messages.
The University of Toronto-based group said it discovered the wide-reaching "big
brother" system last month and stated that a cluster of eight message-logging
servers in China have blocked and
archived more than a million censored messages.
The targets have been communications containing any of a number of restricted
words from a list that includes Taiwan independence, the Chinese Communist
Party, the Falungong religious group, democracy and even the words earthquake
and milk powder. Chinese officials have faced criticism over the past few
months over the handling of earthquake relief and the recent discovery of a
harmful chemical in milk powder.
Flagged messages are blocked from transmission and stored on the server for
later analysis by Chinese cyber-cops. The system is also capable of capturing
messages using other criteria, such as usernames and storing information such
as mobile-phone accounts, mobile-phone text messages and Internet protocol
addresses - that is, an identification for computers logged on to the Internet.
In a report published on Wednesday titled
"Breaching Trust: An analysis of surveillance and security practices on China's
Tom-Skype platform", the researchers claim the surveillance system led
to the disclosure of millions of records containing personal information,
including voice calls, from Tom-Skype customers. The security breach and data
leak has become a major concern to Skype executives, who say their system has
since been modified and that it does not affect Skype users outside of China.
The researchers were able to download and analyze copies of the surveillance
data due to incorrect configuration of the Chinese computers that rendered them
accessible. It was suspected that the system is operated by Skype's partner,
Hong Kong-based Tom Group, in close cooperation with the Chinese police and
government Internet censorship taskforce which is estimated to be 30,000
strong.
This latest brick in China's great firewall only goes to highlight the ongoing
technological war that is being waged between China and its ever-increasing,
knowledge-hungry Internet population.
Hardware
Microchip giant AMD has started production on its 45 nanometer processors,
almost a year after rival Intel launched its first 45nm Penryn CPU. The company
is set to launch the new Opteron chip code-named "Shanghai" before the end of
the year. It claims that the new processor will be about 20% faster than the
current 65nm Barcelona core at comparable clock speeds. The desktop version
code-named "Deneb" will follow.
AMD are also taking a swipe at another rival, Nvidia, by introducing new entry
level 4,000 series graphics cards. The 4500/4300 series cards will go
head-to-head with Nvidia's 9400 but at a cheaper price, according to the chip
maker. The new cards are targeting sub-US$800 desktop PCs, which are likely to
gain a greater market share during the economic downturn. They will cost
between $40 and $55, which puts them below Nvidia's competing 9400 series card
which retails for around $55 to $70.
Science
Snow has been the forecast of the week, and although this may sound unseasonal
for this time of year, it has been even more surprising where it has been found
... on Mars. News that the Phoenix Mars Lander has detected snow falling from
Martian clouds was revealed by the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration on Monday. The Lander has been given a life extension to its
mission, which was initially scheduled to run for 90 Martian days. The
solar-powered machine has already been in operation for more than 120 days, but
as Martian winter sets in, the amount of available sunlight available to power
it dwindles by the day.
In addition to snow over the Martian Arctic Circle, seawater-like properties
have also been discovered in the chemical composition of the surface of the red
planet. Soil analysis readings show that it may contain calcium carbonate
particles, which make up the composition of chalk and clay which can only be
formed in the presence of water here on Earth. The findings add to the evidence
that liquid water, which may have supported life, once flowed on Mars.
Martin J Young is an Asia Times Online correspondent based in Thailand.
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Hardware
