Tech level in Hong Kong protests: China hits protesters with spyware, viruses….FireChat takes over

The on-going pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, led by students and Occupy Central protesters (Central is Hong Kong's financial district) is growing by the moment in spite of police clampdown. The growth of the protest has prompted the Chinese government to seek ways to derail the protests by means which including disrupting the protesters means of information exchange which is the social media.

 

The government is blocking mainland Internet users from visiting some online services and websites. Instagram, which has been used to publicise pictures of the teeming protesters in the streets, has been blocked.

The latest move, according to the South China Morning Post, is that protestors have been targeted with mobile spam urging them to download an Android app supposedly designed by theCode 4HK community,  coordinators of Occupy Central.

The Code4HK leaders denied designing the app and later discovered that the app is actually a piece of rather generic spyware, which accesses users’ contacts, browsing history, approximate location, text messages and phone call history. It also records audio.

Help Net Security online reports that in order to beat the government’s effort aimed at shutting down the city's cellular networks, the protesters have begun using FireChat, a P2P chat app that allows users to exchange messages even when there is no mobile phone coverage or Internet access.

According to the site, “The app creates ad-hoc mobile networks, and the messages are sent over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. These connections are encrypted, and the messages are not going through a central server that can be accessed by authorities”.

Now you see why that country is behind the “chinko” phones and tech swags.

See some pictures that protesters have managed to send out by circumventing the blockade