Google flees Great Firewall of China
Apr 6, 2010 Business, Net Neutrality, Regulation, Security
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Back in December 2009 Google and a number of other high profile companies were the target of several cyber attacks which were allegedly traced back to the Chinese government. In Google’s case the hackers appeared to be after the Gmail account details of a number of human rights advocates. We started to cover this story in January when Google announced that it was considering withdrawing its Google.cn operations following the attacks.
Neil Watson, Head of Operations
- Entanet Opinion: Google finally stands up to China
On its company blog, Google stated “We launched Google.cn in January 2006 in the belief that the benefits of increased access to information for people in China and a more open Internet outweighed our discomfort in agreeing to censor some results. At the time we made clear that “we will carefully monitor conditions in China, including new laws and other restrictions on our services. If we determine that we are unable to achieve the objectives outlined we will not hesitate to reconsider our approach to China.”
- Google Blog: A new approach to China
Tags: Business, Net Neutrality, Regulation, Security
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Loading ...IMP continuing despite industry backlash
Feb 9, 2010 Privacy, Regulation, Security
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Back in November 2008 we published an article (Entanet opinion: Are we living in “1984”? ) about the government’s proposed plans to centrally store records of all electronic communications throughout the UK. The Interception Modernisation Programme (IMP) will be the largest surveillance system ever created in the UK and calls for a ‘live tap’ to be placed on every electronic communication in Britain including telephone calls, emails and visited websites.
Neil Watson, Head of Operations
We raised obvious concerns over the impact on privacy, the security of the data, the enormous cost involved and the feasibility of the project. Our concerns were echoed by LINX, a major UK peering organisation who stated “We view the description of the government’s proposals as ‘maintaining’ the capability as disingenuous: the volume of data the government now proposes CSPs should collect and retain will be unprecedented, as is the overall level of intrusion into the privacy of the citizenry.”
- The Register: ISPs scorn government net snoop plan
In December 2009 it emerged all of the UK’s mobile operators had also announced their concerns over the project. Vodafone, Orange, 3 and T-Mobile all voiced their concerns in the form of submissions to the government’s consultation.
- The Register: Mobile networks line up to bash net snooping plan
Tags: Privacy, Regulation, Security
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Google finally stands up to China
Jan 13, 2010 Business, Net Neutrality, Regulation, Security
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Is it the end of the road for Google.cn?
Yesterday on the official Google Blog, David Drummond, Google’s Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer announced that following a cyber attack in December Google is now considering withdrawing its operations from the Chinese market. Clearly there’s more to this though and we think market leaders should make a stand against the restriction that Chinese government censorship applies to Chinese web users.
Neil Watson, Head of Operations
Through a thorough investigation since mid December Google allegedly has evidence to suggest that the attack originated in China and its aim was to access the Gmail accounts of several US, European and Chinese based human rights advocates. The company also has evidence to suggest that the attacks did not only affect Google, advising that an additional 20 large corporations in various industries including the Internet, media, finance and chemical sectors were also affected.
- Official Google Blog: A new approach to China
The Register reports that one of these additional companies was possibly Adobe, although the company has not confirmed whether or not the two incidents were related. Adobe also announced news of its attack via its corporate blog advising that they had become aware of “a computer security incident involving a sophisticated, coordinated attack against corporate network systems managed by Adobe and other companies.”
- The Register: Google may exit China after ‘highly targeted’ attack
- Adobe.com: Adobe Investigates Corporate Network Security Issue
Tags: Business, Net Neutrality, Regulation, Security
(2 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5) Loading ...Poll: The Government’s IMP is…?
Jan 11, 2010 Business, Net Neutrality, Polls, Privacy, Regulation, Security
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The UK’s mobile operators have recently united against the government’s planned IMP (Improvement and Modernisation Programme) which will require all ISPs and operators to collect and store all IP communications.
We would like to know what you think about the government’s plans and have created a poll to capture your thoughts.
Tags: Business, Digital Britain, Net Neutrality, Privacy, Regulation, Security
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Knowledge is power – good or bad!
Nov 25, 2009 Privacy, Regulation, Security, Social Networking
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Following our earlier articles regarding the rise of social networking and its potential privacy issues and our coverage of subjects such as cyber-bullying, when we heard the results of Ofcom’s latest report it raised a number of concerns.
Darren Farnden, Head of Marketing
Last month Ofcom released a report into children’s web access and their online habits.
- Ofcom: Children’s web access
The report shows that 35% of 12-15 year olds and 16% of 8-11 year olds now have access to the web in their bedrooms, up 20% and 9% respectively since 2007. Worryingly 60% of 12-15 year olds and one third of 8-11 year olds use the internet mostly on their own and one in five 5-7 year olds say they use the internet without an adult in the room.
From the parents’ point of view 45% of those whose children use the Internet at home state they have filtering software and controls in place but this leaves an obvious 55% of children using the Internet unsupervised with no parental restrictions in place.
Tags: Privacy, Regulation, Security, Social Networking
(3 votes, average: 3.33 out of 5) Loading ...
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