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An online counter-insurgency
Unsurprisingly, Beijing isn't too fond of these commercial censorship fighters.7Gf免费翻墙网
There have been regular clampdowns on VPN usage in China, such as earlier this year, when the Firewall underwent an "upgrade for cyberspace sovereignty", according to the People's Daily.7Gf免费翻墙网
Igor Bidenko, chief information officer at U.S.-based Keep Solid VPN, said that the company's website and services are "often blocked in China," where around 15% of its customers are based.7Gf免费翻墙网
"It's frustrating, it takes a lot of manpower," said CyberGhost's Knapp. Most companies like his do not make the majority of their revenues from China, and the cost-per-user runs far higher for those from countries with censored Internet.7Gf免费翻墙网
While it might not be their main priority, and can even cost them money, Knapp said that whenever the Chinese authorities introduce new blocking techniques, his team set about working around them.7Gf免费翻墙网
"For the engineers, sometimes they see it as a fun challenge, a game to find new ways to unblock the service again," he said.7Gf免费翻墙网
Alongside VPNs, a host of other tools and services have sprung up, built by activists and developers and published online for free.7Gf免费翻墙网
"The freedom aspect appeals to the politics of many people in the computer security field, as well as the real technical challenges [of beating the censors]," said Rob Johnson, a researcher at Stony Brook University and one of the developers of anti-censorship technology, The Castle.7Gf免费翻墙网
Critics say the censors have sought to shut down as many of these tools as possible, targeting developers within China like Li and pressuring them to delete their apps. For those outside of the country, drastic measures are needed.7Gf免费翻墙网
GitHub, a hugely popular U.S.-based service that hosts code and open source software, was hit with a huge distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack earlier this year, that overwhelmed its servers and forced it offline.7Gf免费翻墙网
Cybersecurity researchers linked the attack to China, with the presumed purpose being to block access to tools hosted on GitHub, such as the anti-censorship group GreatFire and The Castle, which tunnels traffic through the firewall via online video games.7Gf免费翻墙网
In a news conference shortly after the attack, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman addressed claims about Chinese involvement saying, "It is quite odd that every time a website in the U.S. or any other country is under attack, there will be speculation that Chinese hackers are behind it...We have been underlining that China hopes to work with the International community to speed up the making of international rules and jointly keep the cyberspace peaceful, secure, open and cooperative."7Gf免费翻墙网
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