Blacknoise: Low-fi Lightweight Steganography in Service of Free Speech data sheet 978 Views
Author:
Paik, Michael
Publication Date:
Jan 2010
Publication Type:
Report/White paper
Abstract:
Censorship of communications is a widespread, current practice in various countries with repressive governments in order to prevent or restrict speech; political speech in particular. In many cases state-run telecommunications agencies including those providing internet and phone service, actively filter content or disconnect users in defense of incumbents in the face of widespread criticism by citizens.
In this paper I present Blacknoise, a system which uses commodity low-cost mobile telephones equipped with cameras, and takes advantage of their lowfidelity, noisy sensors in order to enable embedding of arbitrary text payloads into the images they produce. These images can then be disseminated via MMS, Bluetooth, or posting on the Internet, without requiring a separate digital camera or computer to perform processing.
Mobile Anonymity and Censorship Circumvention: How to Browse the Web Anonymously On Your Phone data sheet 3097 Views
Author:
MelissaLoudon
Abstract:
If you don’t want someone to know that you were accessing a particular web site (or that you were accessing it at a particular time, such as when inflammatory content was posted), you need to anonymize your mobile browsing. Depending on how your network is set up, the site you are accessing may be able to see and keep a record of your IP address. Your network administrator, Internet Service Provider and/or Mobile Network Operator can see and keep records of the IP addresses of both your Internet-connected mobile device and the sites you are accessing. IP addresses can nearly always be linked to a geographic location, whether a zip code or a city, and your ISP or mobile network provider can link your IP to your individual device.
However, using HTTPS does not hide your identity. If you don’t want someone to know that you were accessing a particular web site (or that you were accessing it at a particular time, such as when inflammatory content was posted), you need to anonymize your mobile browsing. Depending on how your network is set up, the site you are accessing may be able to see and keep a record of your IP address. Your network administrator, Internet Service Provider and/or Mobile Network Operator can see and keep records of the IP addresses of both your Internet-connected mobile device and the site you are accessing. IP addresses can nearly always be linked to a geographic location, whether a zip code or a city, and your ISP or mobile network provider can link your IP to your individual device.
Organisations and countries that block websites can do so by blocking communication to and from specific IP addresses. For this reason, anonymizing your browsing is also the first step to circumventing Internet censorship.
This article describes two tactics for anonymous browsing and censorship circumvention - using a proxy, and using a mobile version of the circumvention tool Tor. Both are used on cpmputers as well as mobile devices. Specific tools for mobile phones are described in the second part of the article.
There are plenty of anecdotal stories of seemingly random delays lasting multiple hours or even days in many countries where we work. While network congestion and growing infrastructure are often to blame for SMS unreliability, there are also legitimate concern that delays may be an indication of deliberate message filtering and monitoring.
What has emerged is an environment in which activists and human rights defenders are unable to clearly understand what networks - and what behavior - is safe or hazardous for themselves or their contacts. The end goal of this research, put simply, is to change this paradigm. Rumors of keyword filtering are not helpful; what is helpful is any evidence of surveillance.
SMSTester is a simple Android app that allows a user create a set of keywords to be sent as SMS messages. This allows the user to explore differences in latency for any type of message - from basic, everyday text like ‘milk’ or ‘newspaper’ to politically inflammatory text such as ‘revolution.’
We then set up a logging mechanism to timestamp and record each SMS as it is sent (from the sender side) or received (on the receipt side). By comparing the sent and received timestamps, we’re very easily able to calculate message latency from one SIM to another.
Tool Category:
App resides and runs on a mobile phone
Key Features :
The application is designed to be installed on both sides of a single SMS conversation: a sender uses the app to automatically transmit a series of messages to the receiver, where incoming messages are logged upon receipt. Diagnostic data from the send side can be optionally included in the message payload itself such that the receive side can parse, analyze and display test results without needing access to data from the send side. This feature drastically improves flexibility and enables effective testing without requiring physical co-location.
Each message sent is coded with a unique GUID by the application so that data sets from both sides can be later combined if necessary. The output of the data is stored on the device SDCard in comma separated value (CSV) format, which makes it easy to import and parse in any office spreadsheet application.
Main Services:
Other
Display tool in profile:
Yes
Tool Maturity:
Currently deployed
Release Date:
2011-04
Platforms:
Android
Program/Code Language:
Java
Organizations Using the Tool:
MobileActive.org
Support Forums:
https://lab.safermobile.org/wiki/SMSTester
Languages supported:
Any
Handsets/devices supported:
SMSTester is currently availble as an Android application only. However, as the application itself does not require a large amount of computational power or high-end hardware, it can be deployed on virtually any Android handset with SMS capabilities, including low-cost options.
The Role of Digital Networked Technologies in the Ukrainian Orange Revolution data sheet 2205 Views
Author:
Joshua Goldstein
Publication Date:
Dec 2007
Publication Type:
Other
Abstract:
This working paper is part of a series examining how the Internet influences democracy. This report is a narrative case study that examines the role of the Internet and mobile phones during Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution. The first section describes the online citizen journalists who reported many stories left untouched by "self-censored" mainstream journalists. The second section investigates the use of digital networked technologies by pro-democracy organizers. This case study concludes with the statement that the Internet and mobile phones made a wide range of activities easier, however the Orange Revolution was largely made possible by savvy activists and journalists wililng to take risks to improve their country.
[Update below] On the morning of July 29, Reporters Without Borders reported that several citizens of the United Arab Emirates has been arrested for allegedly using BlackBerry Messenger to coordinate a protest against the high price of gasoline. This news comes on the heels of several countries’ working to block or severely limit the use of BlackBerry Messenger in their respective countries. There have also been reports on RIM setting up a server in China under Chinese pressure, even though MobileActive.org could not directly verify these reports.
On July 25th, the United Arab Emirate’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority said that they believed BlackBerrys could be used in a way that compromised national security, in April of 2010 Bahrain issued a ban against using the chat feature to share local news, and now India has joined the ranks of countries requesting access to data and information sent over BBM.
Reporters Without Borders has been covering the controversy in the Middle East. Regarding the arrests in the U.A.E., the organization reports:
The authorities were able to trace the organizer, known as “Saud,” because he included his BlackBerry PIN in a BBM message he sent calling for the protest. They held Saud for a week and used his phone to trace those he had been messaging. Accused of inciting opposition to the government, he has lost his job. At least five other members of the group have reportedly been summoned by the police or are still being sought.
Kiripi Katembo Siku, an art school student from the Democratic Republic of Congo, is a film maker with ingenuity and a mobile. He circumvents the restrictions and government censorship in Kinshasa, the country's capital, by attaching his mobile phone to a toy car, setting it to film, and then giving it to a girl to pull behind her on a piece of string as she walks through the streets of Kinshasa.
The resulting "Voiture en Carton" ("Cardboard Car") provides a rare glimpse of street-life in Kinshasa. The seven-minute film gives the viewer a clandestine look at life in the capital -- feet of children, youth gambling, and an UN jeep passing by.
According to CNN, he is one of a number of filmmakers in the DR Congo who says that using a mobile phone allows him to film in ways that were previously not possble. Film makers there say that filming permits are not given out anymore to avoid exposing corruption, poverty, and crime. Those brave enough to defy the authorities and shoot without permission risk fines, arrest, or worse.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran reported recently that SMS use in Iran is now regulated. According to the article, the Organization of Communications Regulations in Iran has imposed restrictions on sending SMS, requiring a security check by the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) to receive clearance for using the service.
The article details the regulation: "Sending SMS deemed contrary to national security will be punishable by law. Any change of address by the subscriber of the service must be reported promptly to the relevant authorities. It is the security agents who decide which SMS are in breach of national security." The article further states that "according to some figures every day over 20 million text messages are received in Iran, the peak hours are between ten in the evening and one in the morning. The SMS has become a tool to exchange messages by opponents of the regime."
Of the hundreds of mainstream-media news stories around the world on Wednesday August 8, 2007, about the pro-Tibet protest in China this week, the one copied below focused on the role of information and communication technologies in a compelling, vivid, and memorable way.
I hope that readers will know where this story could be taken and how it could be highlighted and used to maximum effect as an example of outstanding innovative use of free new-media tools to achieve social change -- feel free to do that, or let me know what should be done.
