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[geert lovink]

Peekabooty challenges online censorship
By Ann Harrison

Network World File Sharing Newsletter, 05/14/01
http://www.idg.net/crd_idgsearch_2.html?url=http://www.nwfusion.com/newslett
ers/fileshare/2001/00768553.html

A new peer-to-peer tool called Peekabooty, could defeat attempts to censor
controversial Internet traffic.

Developed by the Cult of the Dead Cow (CDC), a group of hackers best known
for creating security tools to exploit holes in Microsoft software,
Peekabooty allows Web pages to be distributed directly between computer
systems.

People living in oppressive regimes can use the Peekabooty client software
to request prohibited Web pages from Peekabooty clients in other more
liberal parts of the world. The request is sent through a distributed
network of servers that dispatch a software agent to access the Web page
and grab the content. The material is then sent to the requesting party in
a compact and encrypted form, which its creators say cannot be filtered out
using conventional technology.

In many counties, ISPs are liable for hosting illegal content and
essentially do the government's bidding. But like the P2P file swapping
system Gnutella, Peekabooty hosts exchange information without a central
server. Since it is highly distributed, it will be difficult to control and
shut down.

Peekabooty, for example, could frustrate efforts by the Chinese government
to block news sources critical of its policies, or be used in other Asian
nations that censor Web sites run by opposition political parties. It also
could be used in counties, such as Australia, which blocks access to
pornographic material, or France, which restricts Nazi memorabilia.

Even if you do not like the stuff being blocked censorship is censorship.
If Peekabooty could defeat government filtering systems, perhaps it could
also circumvent attempts by libraries in the U.S. to censor controversial
Web content. A third of the libraries in this country use filters to block
Web sites, and it is only a matter of time before clever users find ways to
hack this pernicious practice.

The CDC's best-known tools to date are BackOrifice and BackOrifice2000
which lets hackers and security analysts probe for weaknesses in computers
running Microsoft operating systems and take them over. The hacker group
typically launches its new tools at the Defcon security conference and the
developers plan to introduce Peekabooty at this year's show, which will
take place in Las Vegas in July. As in years past, I plan to attend.

--

Ann Harrison is a technology reporter in San Francisco. She can be reached
at ah at well.com.