http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSN3130781320080801
Expert urges China visitors to encrypt data
Fri Aug 1, 2008 1:26am EDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China's blocking of Web sites has embarrassed
the International Olympic Committee, but a computer security expert
said on Thursday that visitors to Beijing also needed to protect
their data from prying eyes.
"People who are going to China should take a clean computer, one with
no data at all," said Phil Dunkelberger, chief executive of security
software firm PGP Corp.
Travelers carrying smart cell phones, blackberries or laptop
computers could unwittingly be offering up sensitive personal or
business information to officials who monitor state-controlled
telecommunications carriers, Dunkelberger said.
He said that without data encryption, executives could have business
plans or designs pilfered, while journalists' lists of contacts could
be exposed, putting sources at risk.
Dunkelberger said that during unrest in Tibet in March, overseas
Tibetan activists found their computer systems under heavy pressure
from Chinese security agencies trying to trace digital communications.
"What the Chinese tried to do was infiltrate their security to see
who in China the Tibet movement was talking to," he said.
China's security policies clashed with Olympic norms on Thursday,
when IOC officials said they were embarrassed by last-minute
disclosures by the Chinese government that media covering the August
8-24 Olympics would not have unfettered access to the Internet.
On Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican, said China
had installed Internet-spying equipment in all the major hotel chains
serving the Olympics.
Citing hotel documents he received, Brownback said journalists,
athletes' families and others attending the Olympics next month "will
be subjected to invasive intelligence-gathering" by China's Public
Security Bureau.
Dunkelberger, whose firm serves many multinational corporations
operating in China, said, "A lot of places in the world, including
China, don't have the same view of personal space and privacy that we
do in the United States."
"You've got to suspect that every place you're doing work is being
monitored and being watched," he said.
His advice for travelers was to keep their electronic devices in the
their possession at all times, and if they could not take a clean
computer, be sure to encrypt the computer, files and even e-mails.
"Whether it's a file or an e-mail, if you're worried about it, you
should probably encrypt it," Dunkelberger said.
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Received on Sat Mar 02 2024 - 00:57:25 CST