Mirrored Websites
In order to use blocked search engines, particularly Google, hackers create so-called mirror sites. These sites, including this one, which is elgooG – Google backwards – also allow users to search for terms that are blocked. To search for human rights, users merely type in “sthgir namuh.” It looks a little weird, but it has been effective.
China doesn’t allow for these sites to operate for terribly long. Many are taken down within hours, most within a day. But for those hours, users are allowed to get past all of China’s blocks and can experience the freedom that the hacktivists desire for their Asian brothers. They can learn of human rights, check out BBC and even visit thehacktivist.com in order to see what has been done for them by groups like cDc, Hackivismo and Reporters Without Borders.
Here is an example of a search, for China hacktivism:
Though I don’t understand all of the technologies employed by these hackers, I do appreciate their worth in the cyberwar. It might be worthwhile to take this as a play-by-play, but it’s too time-consuming, fact-heavy and laundry-listy. It’s a good reference point, but not an end all. Cyberwar hasn’t yet ceased.