PCFormat Forum Archive

Who Watches the Watchers?
By Oliver Rochford on November 28, 2011

How Much Security Technology is Ending up in the Hands of Those We'd Rather it Not?

Once again, specialized security technology from a western vendor was found being used by foreign regime on the U.S. trade embargo list. This most recent incident involves Blue Coat Systems and Syria.

It’s no secret that many states and nations are censoring and monitoring the Internet. Many of these governments are considered authoritarian regimes, often times with trade restrictions and other sanctions against them.

Government Monitoring Internet UsageThe intent, morality and effectiveness aside, it should be obvious to anyone with more than a passing familiarity with the topic, that most of these censorship programs will be based on proprietary, enterprise hardware and solutions. It is not that impossible to build your own nationwide filtering solution. But it is impractical and requires a lot of know-how and skill. Knowledge and skill that is primarily to be found in the west, and requiring resources that few but the likes of China and Saudi Arabia possess.

The big fat elephant in the room has always been, “How, and what with?” That is the question we should be asking ourselves. Whether knowingly, or by subterfuge as Blue Coat have claimed, there must be many more instances of this out there than we currently know about. How many services and devices are actually being used by people we would rather not have these abilities at their fingertips? How long until they are used against us, even if indirectly?

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