US develops new technology to penetrate through Chinese Internet censors

Washington, Feb 6 (ANI): The U.S. government has reportedly figured out ways penetrate through Internet censorship filters to deliver news and other vital information to people in countries like China via e-mails.

The official report from the Broadcasting Board of Governors has detailed successful testing the agency conducted last year as it tried to slip data into inboxes in Hong Kong and China, Fox News reports.

The testing involved technology known as Feed Over e-mail, or FOE, to bypass traps the Chinese government has in place to screen out unwanted Internet content.

According to experts behind the testing, this information weapon probably could not have done much good in a situation like that ongoing unrest in Egypt, where the government had taken the step of blocking Internet access to combat the political disturbances.

"If there's a blackout ... nothing works," BBG Director of Information Security Ken Berman said.

However, the agency's testing has claimed that, at least in China, it could be effectively used to transmit everything from RSS feeds to downloadable files to proxy web addresses, which users can access to browse an uncensored version of the Internet.

Sho Ho, the IT specialist who designed the technology over the past couple years, said the system, which is still undergoing testing, effectively compresses data so it can go undetected, and then it decodes that information so the user on the other end can see it, the paper added.

Berman said the technology could be used as part of BBG's Internet anti-censorship program, which tries to penetrate systems like China's "Great Firewall."

"We're trying to foster that freedom of inquiry. Sho's tool is a different approach to helping solve the same problem," he added. (ANI)