China’s decision to force PC manufacturers to install an Internet filter on all new machines is under attack on two fronts. A lawyer in the country is calling for a public hearing to question the plan’s legality, while a Harvard researcher warns it could leave every computer in the country open to attack by hackers.

As we reported on Monday, the country’s government is insisting that all manufacturers equip computers with software which blocks Web sites listed on a secret database. While officially intended to protect citizens from ‘objectionable content’ such as pornography, there are fears the scheme will be used to limit access to sites with material criticizing the government.

Users will be able to uninstall the software, though doing so will no doubt raise the interest of officials. Users will also be able to add and remove sites from the block list, though they will have to do so manually as they won’t have access to the master list.

Li Fangping, a lawyer in China specializing in human rights cases, has filed a request with officials to hold a public hearing into the scheme. Though he tells Reuters he’s worried about the implications for privacy and free speech, he’s using a legal technicality to object to the plan: he argues that forcing all manufacturers to install the same software is a breach of the buyer’s right to choose.

Li has previously attracted attention by defending political dissidents and representing families affected by toxic baby milk powder.

Meanwhile a researcher from Harvard who also acts as a “social entrepreneur” in China warned that the plan has major security risks. Isaac Mao told the BBC that he’d found communication between the software and its manufacturers (who will maintain the database of blocked sites) was unencrypted, potentially exposing personal detail to hackers or even allowing computers to become infected and – given the size of China’s computer market – creating the mother of all botnets.

However, the BBC also suggests that the software may be less effective than originally designed. It reports claims that it can be bypassed with Firefox, and isn’t even compatible with Macs or Linux machines.

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Entry was posted on Thursday, June 11th, 2009 at 12:38 pm under Security.

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