On December 26, 2014, in an announcement posted on their website, a new chairperson for CNNIC was directly appointed by the Cyberspace Administration of China. The announcement of this appointment coincided with the complete blocking of Gmail.
Cyberspace Administration of China (中央网信办) is chaired by Lu Wei, “China’s web doorkeeper”. Lu Wei is also the vice chair of the Central Propaganda Department, according to his official resume.
This office is directly responsible for the blocking of Gmail and other websites including Facebook, Twitter and Google.
CNNIC is China’s certification authority and operates the country’s domain name registry.
What are certificates used for?
Certificates are used primarily to verify the identity of a person or device, authenticate a service, or encrypt files.
All Google products in China have been severely disrupted since June of this year and Chinese users have not been able to access Gmail via its web interface since the summer. However, email protocols such as IMAP, SMTP and POP3 had been accessible but are not anymore. These protocols are used in the default email app on iPhone, Microsoft Outlook on PC and many more email clients.
On December 26, GFW started to block large numbers of IP addresses used by Gmail. These IP addresses are used by IMAP/SMTP/POP3. Chinese users now have no way of accessing Gmail behind the GFW. Before, they could still send or receive emails via email clients even though Gmail's web interface was not accessible.
Google's own traffic chart shows a sharp decline of Chinese traffic to Gmail.
Below is a ping request to the Gmail SMTP server, which is completely inaccessible in China.
The censorship authorities in China have blocked access to HSBC’s corporate banking portal, HSBCnet, casting a large shadow over the the ability for both foreign and domestic companies to conduct day-to-day business inside the country.
What happened?
On October 23, 2014 users started to report that they had trouble accessing the online corporate banking service at global behemoth HSBC.
The bank itself was forced to add a note on its website acknowledging a problem:
Important Message: Customers logging in from China
Dear HSBCnet User
Please be advised that HSBCnet Users are currently experiencing problems when attempting to log into the system from within China. We are aware of this issue and are diligently working with local providers to deliver a prompt resolution.
This challenge resides outside the HSBCnet system and activity performed through our online banking platform remains secure.
- 带给您中国防火墙封锁的最新资讯