Cyberscope.(Brief Article)

THE INTERNET

Do-Good Hackers

For as long as there have been computer networks, there have been hackers ready to break into them and cause trouble. So it is surprising that the biggest story to emerge from this year's Def Con hackers' convention (yes, even hackers have conventions) is that members of one of the most notorious hack collectives are doing something constructive. High-minded, even.

The challenge: governments of China, Cuba and some Islamic countries block Web sites that carry information or ideas that these governments prefer to keep from their citizens. (China, for instance, has blocked CNN.com.) The hackers' response: software that lets users get around government-installed "firewalls" and gain access to the forbidden sites. This may be the first instance of world-class hacking for human rights.

Before you conclude that the hackers have somehow grown up, bear in mind that the program is called Peekabooty and that the authors are a "special operations group" of the Cult of the Dead Cow, a group best known for creating Back Orifice, a tool for gaining access to the PCs of unsuspecting Windows users.

But the aims of Hacktivismo, as this cDc spinoff is called, are neither malicious nor sophomoric. The spokesman, who calls himself Oxblood Ruffin, says the software is an extension of the hacker ideal of free- flowing information. "Access to information is a basic human right," he says. Once installed, the program works with a standard Web browser. But instead of linking to the local, filtered server--the one the censor expects you to use--it goes through the computers of fellow travelers who have installed the software, and who form a kind of anonymous peer-to-peer underground network. Eventually the network leads to a server outside the firewall and--voila!--access granted. Dozens of hackers from the United States, Canada, Germany, Israel, Taiwan, South Korea and China collaborate on the project. The American Association for the Advancement of Science supports the group's distribution efforts.

The biggest question about Hacktivismo is whether users in a censorious state run a risk of being found ...