[clug] OT: Protesting the proposed clean feed?

[Peter Barker]

On Thu, 23 Oct 2008, David Schoen wrote:

> The thing I thought people may find interesting is that I work in a
> government department now that is intercepting all https traffic (I don't
> know if it's filtered, but all the ssl certificates I get belong to the
> department and not the origin server). I find this abysmal as I can no
> longer feel safe checking my bank account at work. I also can't verify that
> software I download for work is from the intended source.

That's really quite sad.  Best take note of the md5sums from home over a 
secure connection....

You know, with a trusted CA certificate in both Firefox and in Internet 
Explorer, you could MITM any SSL site you chose to and 99% of people 
wouldn't notice.  Would Microsoft install one of these for the Australian 
Government for $500m?  Would Mozilla Corp?  How about Apple?

I seriously doubt the government will introduce SSL filtering.  They may 
be silly enough to start blocking speicific IP addresses, but I think 
having every ISP have access to unencrypted bank transaction information 
would be just too great a risk.

> Content Keeper were also supplying the schools with lists of categories 
> and any categorisation done by the schools was harvested by Content 
> Keeper
...
> available, but parents around the country could probably categorise 
> stuff themselves and keep the whole thing reasonably comprehensive.

I... *am* impressed!  They've managed to find an easy way to get the 
lowest common denominator.  Holden and Ford are *both* going to be annoyed 
when their pages are blocked by zealots from the opposing camp.

> - Dave.

Yours,
-- 
Peter Barker                          |   Programmer,Sysadmin,Geek.
pbarker at barker.dropbear.id.au	      |   You need a bigger hammer.
:: It's a hack! Expect underscores! - Nigel Williams