China's Green Dam is badware and so much more

StopBadware assisted the Open Net Initiative in evaluating China’s Green Dam filtering software, which the Chinese government recently mandated be installed on every new PC in the country.

The software violates our guidelines due to a lack of disclosure about some significant unexpected behavior. While the software advertises itself as protecting children from harmful content such as pornography and violence, it also filters political speech without notice. Also not mentioned is the fact that, if such political speech appears in an application window, whether Internet Explorer or Notepad, the window completely shuts down without advance notice and without saving the user’s work.

Based on our and ONI’s research, and also other research posted online, the software has additional flaws, as well, ranging from poorly implemented features to security vulnerabilities. The biggest flaw of all, though, appears to be China’s policy of mandating such a product. As ONI’s report, released yesterday, concludes:

The mandate requiring the installation of a specific product serves no useful purpose apart from extending the reach of government authorities. Given the resulting poor quality of the product, the large negative security and stability effects on the Chinese computing infrastructure and the intense backlash against the product mandate, the mandate may result in less government control.

Those interested should read the full report, which explains both the software’s behavior and the national reaction to the software, in detail.