• The New York Times, Monday, November 27, 2006 11 AM

They call themselves "hactivists"--political-minded computer wiz's who hack for a cause. But hactivists at the University of Toronto may have opened one hell of a Pandora's Box after creating the most advanced--and simplest to use--tool to let Web uses circumvent government censorship on the Web.

Of course, in this country, we don't have that problem (or do we?), but around the globe, Web censorship is standard in places like China, Myanmar, Cuba, North Korea and Vietnam. The new program, psiphon (SY-fon), will be released Dec. 1; its creators are hoping that Web users in those countries will download it so they can gain access to valuable information censored by their governments.

Once someone downloads psiphon in an uncensored country, that person's computer turns into an access point, which allows someone in a foreign country to log into that computer through an encrypted connection and use it as a proxy. It gives the censored user full access to the Web without appearing as if they viewed censored material.

As proactively human rights as the whole thing sounds, you can imagine the security implications. An open Web may be a great thing for all, but opening up your computer for strangers to use is never advisable. What if such a program enabled terrorists to gain access to sensitive information? Also, for this to work, a very large (like thousands to millions) network of users would have to be recruited as proxies, as it would be hard to reach a significant number of people.

Read the whole story at The New York Times »