Sunday, October 5, 2008

Spyware found on Tibetan website



We all know about the Great Firewall of China which blocks internet users in China from accessing certain websites. What about the websites that users in China can access though? Are they safe? What about the sites that are most popular with Tibetans? What's in them to make Google warn a user outside of China - with a full screen in RED no less - about accessing them for security reasons (see picture above or better yet, try to access that page yourself)?

For readers unfamiliar with the realms of the cyberworld that Tibetans in Tibet are floating around in, TibetCul.com is one of the most popular Tibetan websites and run from Xining, Qinghai Province. It has pages on news, photos, music, videos, travel, blogs and healthy doses of gossip and trash too. Surfing any of those pages brings up Google's security messages and yet surfing for news on the Chinese Google, Baidu, seems fine.

And finally, as if that wasn't enough to put you off surfing Chinese websites, the news is unveiled this week about the Chinese version of Skype confirming what most of us have known all along - that Chinese Skype is highly dodgy.

Happy melamine-free surfing all!

No comments: