WeChat is similar to the popular US-based mobile messaging serviceWhatsApp, but it does more. An amalgamation of social media tools akin to Twitter, Facebook and Skype, it comes in eight languages including English, Arabic and Russian.

[...] Hu Jia, a human rights activist jailed for three years on a charge of sedition, suspects that voicemail messages to his friends had been listened to by guobao officials (internal security bureau).

“I took a chance and assumed WeChat was relatively safe,” he said. “It’s a new product and not developed by China Mobile or China Unicom, [two of China's main telecoms companies], which have been monitoring my calls and text messages for over 10 years. But the guobao surprised me with their ability to repeat my words or voice messages verbatim, though I’m sure I only sent them to some friends through WeChat.”

[...] Adam Segal, a Council on Foreign Relations cyber-security expert, said that WeChat was not alone in offering potential security loopholes. “Information technology services and software are all fundamentally insecure,” he said. “WeChat shouldn’t be singled out in this instance. Many technologies have some type of vulnerability, and a directed adversary can figure out vulnerabilities to exploit and gather intelligence.”

At Tech in Asia, Charles Custer discussed the other side of the coin:

That WeChat, like all domestic social media, poses a security risk to dissidents should not come as a surprise. Nor is it particularly surprising that countries like Taiwan are concerned about the potential security implications of the service. But interestingly, Chinese authorities see the service as something of a threat as well. On Sunday evening, state-run broadcaster CCTV ran a feature piece about the dangers of WeChat, focusing primarily on how its anonymity and location-reporting features can give criminals an easy in. For example, the report told the story of Xu Xiaohong, a single woman who was ultimately ambushed and murdered when a man she met on WeChat attempted to rob her. He knew where she was, and when she was going to be there, because of WeChat.

[...] Of course, any chat tool can be used to perpetrate fraud, robbery, and other crimes, and many Chinese commenters have already pointed out that the CCTV seems to be unnecessarily blaming WeChat for the faults of its users. And it’s worth mentioning that the app does have a warning message reminding users not to trust strangers when they first engage its find-users-in-my-vicinity feature. Still, though, it’s clear the location reporting has made a lot of people nervous. Expectations of privacy in China can be lower than they are in some Western countries (if you’ll forgive the sweeping generalization), so it is interesting to see that WeChat’s location-reporting unnerves both China’s dissidents and its police. The concerns of those groups don’t seem to have had much effect on regular users, though, who are still signing up at an impressive clip.

© Mengyu Dong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Hu Jia, Internet privacy, Internet technology, social media, state security, tencent
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Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and China’s Defense Minister Liang Guanglie on Monday struck a positive note at a joint press conference at the Pentagon, announcing a joint counter-piracy naval exercise in the Gulf of Aden later this year and tentative plans to cooperate in the sensitive realm of cyber security.

Liang’s trip marked the first visit by a Chinese defense minister to Washington in nine years and US defense officals were anxious to avoid any mention of blind rights campaigner Chen Guangcheng.

Chen “didn’t come up” in the talks and officials had said beforehand that his fate was a subject for US diplomats at the State Department, not the Pentagon.

The dissident dramatically escaped house arrest and took refuge at the US embassy in Beijing on April 26, creating a dilemma for both governments just days before the arrival of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Although the two countries have agreed to work together, some officials are worried because the most often cited source of cyber attacks is from China. According the the Voice of America, Liang has denied these claims:

Liang, a general in the People’s Liberation Army, said that there is no evidence directly linking cyber attacks in the United States to China. He said that in his talks with U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, the secretary agreed that all of the attacks could not be attributed to China.

Liang said that during their talks Monday, he and Panetta discussed ways to strengthen cyber security, but added that they would leave the details of that effort for experts to work out.

President Barack Obama has cited cyber security as one of the most serious economic and national security challenges facing the United States. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says Sino-American cooperation is crucial.

“Because the United States and China have developed technological capabilities in this arena, it’s extremely important that we work together to develop ways to avoid any miscalculation or misperception that could lead to crisis in this area,” said Panetta.

Liang’s visit has been the first visit by a Chinese defense minister since 2003.

© Melissa M. Chan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cyberpolice, Internet, Internet safety, Internet security, Internet technology, U.S military
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Michael Posner, the US assistant secretary of state for human rights, said projects being funded by the US government included technology that acts as a “slingshot” – identifying censored material and throwing it back on to the web for users to find.

“We’re responding with new tools. This is a cat-and-mouse game. We’re trying to stay one step ahead of the cat,” Posner said. Censored information would be redirected to email, blogs and other online sources, he said. He would not identify the recipients of funding for “reasons of security”.

The comments are part of an overall US strategy to raise the importance of cyberspace in foreign affairs. The Pentagon is preparing to unveil an “international strategy for cyberspace” that will make online security an official domain of warfare like land, sea and air.

In a recent interview with the Atlantic magazine, Clinton said China had a deplorable human rights record and was involved in a “fool’s errand” trying to hold off democratic changes like those sweeping the Middle East.

In her speech in February, the US secretary of state called the internet “the public space of the 21st century” and hailed the way it had been used to support uprisings in Egypt and protests in Iran. She pledged US support for freedom of expression and association online. “For the United States, the choice is clear. On the spectrum of internet freedom, we place ourselves on the side of openness,” she said.

© nataliethomas for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: censorship, Internet, Internet technology, United States
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(...)
Read the rest of Chinese Censors and Web Users Match Wits (224 words)

© Li Xiaorong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2005. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: censorship, cyberpolice, Internet technology, NPC 2005
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