China's New Censorship Software a Potential "Large-Scale Disaster"

The Chinese government is requiring all PC makers selling into the China market to bundle Green Dam Youth Escort web filtering software as of July 1, as we reported earlier this week. This software, already widely used in China's schools and elsewhere, has plenty of flaws, BBC News reports:

• Unencrypted connections between client PCs and the company's servers, which could lead to information theft or the PCs being turned into botnet nodes for malware attacks
• Filtering only Internet Explorer browsers, not Firefox
• Support only for Microsoft Windows
• Inaccurate web site blocking
• Potential privacy risks for users because the software logs all web pages the user attemps to access

Right now, it seems as if Green Dam Youth Escort is incapable of meeting its specified goals of "healthy development of the internet" and "effectively manag[ing] harmful material for the public and prevent it from being spread," while providing a terrific opportunity for malware providers. Have you encountered similar problems with web filtering software? Hit Comment to sound off.