By Star Chang, posted Dec 20, 2012 at 3:40 AM, 1,337 views,

Chinese Government Introduces New technology to Power-up its Great Firewall

China appears to be tightening its control of internet services by upgrading the abominable “Great Firewall”, which prevents more Chinese web user from reading overseas content. Companies and individuals are being hit by the new technology deployed by the Chinese government to control what type of info where people are getting inside the country. A number of companies providing “virtual private network” (VPN) services to users in China say the new system is able to “learn, discover and block” the encrypted communications methods used by a number of different VPN systems …

VPNs encrypt internet communications between two points so that even if the data being passed is tapped, it cannot be read. A VPN connection from inside China to outside it also mean that the user’s internet connection effectively starts outside the “Great Firewall” – in theory giving access to the vast range of information and sites that the Chinese government blocks. That includes many western newspaper sites as well as Twitter, Facebook and Google. According to one VPN company, telecoms providers in China are now killing connections where a VPN is detected.

A VPN provider has emailed its users to warn them that the China “Great Firewall” system is blocking at least four of the common protocols used by VPNs, which means that they don’t function. But the company is also trying to stay ahead of the censors, by working on a new system that it hopes will stay ahead of the detection system. If you want to know which website is blocked in China for now, you can visit GreatFire.org, Blocked in China, or Great Firewall of China for testing.

SOURCE: theguardian via BEIJING CREAM