Symantec labels China censor-busting software as Trojan

[R. A. Hettinga]

<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/14/symantec_targets_freegate/print.html>

The Register


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 Original URL:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/14/symantec_targets_freegate/

Symantec labels China censor-busting software as Trojan
By John Leyden (john.leyden at theregister.co.uk)
Published Tuesday 14th September 2004 18:10 GMT

Symantec has labelled a program that enables Chinese surfers to view
blocked websites as a Trojan Horse. Upshot? Users of Norton Anti-Virus
cannot access Freegate, a popular program which circumvents government
blocks, the FT reports.

Freegate has 200,000 users, Dynamic Internet Technology (DIT
(http://www.dit-inc.us)), its developer, estimates. It lets users view
sites banned by the Chinese government by taking advantage of a range of
proxy servers assigned to changeable internet addresses. But a recent
update to Symantec's AV definition files means the latest version of
Freegate is treated as malware and removed from systems protected by
Norton. Short of disabling Norton AV, users would have little say in this.

A Symantec staffer in China told the FT that Norton Anti-Virus identified
Freegate as a Trojan horse, but declined to provide a rationale for such a
definition. The absence of an explanation from Symantec raises concerns. We
hope that the mislabelling of Freegate is a simple mistake, soon rectified,
rather than yet another example of an IT firm helping Beijing implement
restrictions.

History provides as least one example
(http://www.vmyths.com/rant.cfm?id=316&page=4) of the AV industry extending
favours to China that it would normally withhold. AV firms normally keep
virus samples under lock and key. But suppliers agreed to hand over virus
samples to the Chinese government a few years ago as a condition of trading
in the country. These samples could be easily found on the net but the
incident illustrates a precedent of China being treated as a special
exception.
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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'