Tweet
US bankrolls 'shadow' internet for dissidents: report
11:13 - 13.06.11
The US government is financing the development of "shadow" internet
systems to enable dissidents abroad to get around government censors,
The New York Times reported.
The newspaper said the covert effort also includes attempts to create
independent cellphone networks inside foreign countries.
The operation involves a fifth-floor shop on L Street in Washington,
where a group of young entrepreneurs are fitting deceptively
innocent-looking hardware into a prototype "internet in a suitcase,"
the report said.
Financed with a $2.0 million State Department grant, the suitcase
could be secreted across a border and quickly set up to allow wireless
communications over a wide area with a link to the global internet,
the paper noted.
Some projects involve technology being developed in the United States
while others pull together tools that have already been created by
hackers from the so-called liberation technology movement, The Times
said.
The State Department is financing the creation of stealth wireless
networks that would enable activists to communicate outside the reach
of governments in countries like Iran, Syria and Libya, the paper
said.
The US government has also spent at least $50 million to create an
independent cellphone network in Afghanistan using towers on protected
military bases inside the country, The Times said.
It is intended to offset the Taliban's ability to shut down the
official Afghan services, the report noted.
Tert.am
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
11:13 - 13.06.11
The US government is financing the development of "shadow" internet
systems to enable dissidents abroad to get around government censors,
The New York Times reported.
The newspaper said the covert effort also includes attempts to create
independent cellphone networks inside foreign countries.
The operation involves a fifth-floor shop on L Street in Washington,
where a group of young entrepreneurs are fitting deceptively
innocent-looking hardware into a prototype "internet in a suitcase,"
the report said.
Financed with a $2.0 million State Department grant, the suitcase
could be secreted across a border and quickly set up to allow wireless
communications over a wide area with a link to the global internet,
the paper noted.
Some projects involve technology being developed in the United States
while others pull together tools that have already been created by
hackers from the so-called liberation technology movement, The Times
said.
The State Department is financing the creation of stealth wireless
networks that would enable activists to communicate outside the reach
of governments in countries like Iran, Syria and Libya, the paper
said.
The US government has also spent at least $50 million to create an
independent cellphone network in Afghanistan using towers on protected
military bases inside the country, The Times said.
It is intended to offset the Taliban's ability to shut down the
official Afghan services, the report noted.
Tert.am
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress