The Chinese Governments attempts to keep their people free from internet porn and the like are facing howls of protests from computer users.

Porn of course is the excuse for the state nanny software – called Green Dam Youth Escort – to filter out all those sites that the Government does not approve of.

Many computer experts, outside of China and inside its boundaries, claim that the filter is so full of holes and flaws that it will be a gift to computer hackers.

But as from the start of July, all personal computers sold in China will have had to be pre-loaded with a copy of Green Dam Youth Escort, or have a disc that must be loaded as the computer is prepared.

One of the major problems is that the software on the PC communicates with its base servers (which hold databases of accepted and non-accepted sites) via unencrypted messages. So, potentially, these messages can be hacked and taken over by cyber criminals, who then access individual computers and steal personal information, or worse, effectively link all of China’s personal computers into a huge botnet.

A botnet is a network of zombie computers which are under the stealth control of an external, malicious hacker. Computer security experts are white faced when thinking what that could entail in terms of spam email generation alone.

And the system has fundamental flaws. You can access porn if you use the Firefox browser, use a web proxy server, or have Linux on board instead of Windows. It also has trouble sorting out what might be animal flesh (and therefore regarded as porn) and what might be allowed: dark skin pigments are okay.

So, when travelling to China, don’t expect your full range of internet services and just be careful your machine does not become a zombie, for the sake of us all.

Guest Article by Neil Camp