Cross posted from https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/42251606
Full details, including technical material and download links, are available at the GFW Report. The hacktivists behind this leak warn that downloading and examining these files should only be done in isolated environments.
[…]
The largest leak linked to the Great Firewall of China surfaced online, with nearly 600 GB of material allegedly containing source code, internal communications, work logs, and technical documentation from groups said to be involved in building and maintaining the system.
The data was leaked by Enlace Hacktivista, previously linked to the Cellebrite data leak. The collective claims that the documents were traced to Geedge Networks and the MESA Lab at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Information Engineering. Both have long been central to the Firewall’s research and development, with Geedge led by Fang Binxing, often called the “Father of the Great Firewall.”
According to the files, their reach spreads outside China’s borders, supplying censorship and surveillance technology to governments in Myanmar, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, and others linked to the Belt and Road Initiative.
[…]
The published material is available for download through both BitTorrent and direct links. The package includes a massive mirror/repo.tar file weighing 500 GB, basically an archive of the RPM (Red Hat Package Manager) packaging server, alongside compressed document sets from Geedge and MESA. In total, the files contain tens of thousands of pages and repositories, offering a rare window into the infrastructure behind the Firewall.
[…]
Even before digging deeper into the source code, the structure of the leaked archive gives clear insight into things. For example, geedge_docs.tar.zst and mesalab_docs.tar.zst contain thousands of internal reports, project descriptions, and technical proposals. File names like CTF-AWD.docx, BRI.docx, and CPEC.docx suggest connections to Belt and Road Initiative projects and international collaborations.
Project management records, such as geedge_jira.tar.zst, highlight day-to-day coordination between researchers and engineers, while communication drafts, like chat.docx and multiple schedule documents, show the granular planning that went into censorship operations. Even routine administrative files such as 打印.docx (Print) and reimbursement-related proofs indicate how deeply routine and bureaucratic this apparatus has become
[…]
The background included in the leak provides a detailed timeline of MESA’s formation and growth. Established in 2012 at the Institute of Information Engineering, MESA grew quickly through talent programs, research grants, and government contracts. By 2016, it was handling projects worth more than 35 million yuan annually and contributing to national-level awards in cybersecurity.
When Geedge Networks was founded in 2018 in Hainan, Fang Binxing served as its chief scientist, bringing with him a cadre of MESA researchers and students. The company soon became a key private partner to Chinese authorities, supporting censorship operations not only domestically but also as an exporter of surveillance solutions abroad.
[…]
Experts may need months to analyse the source code, but the documents already back up what many observers have been claiming for years. The Great Firewall is not a fixed system; it is a growing network shaped by government contracts, research institutes, and private companies.
The hacktivists behind this leak warn that downloading and examining these files should only be done in isolated environments. Given the sensitivity of the content, there is always the risk that malware or tracking elements could be embedded in the archives. Still, for researchers and rights groups, the trove offers an opportunity to understand how the Firewall operates and how its influence spreads.
Analysts at Net4People and GFW Report plan to share more findings as they go through the source code. For now, the leak offers an unusual look at how the system operates, and it will take time to understand the full weight of what has been exposed.
[…]
https://github.com/apernet/OpenGFW
I think we need to develop a foss open so we can use it to develop censorship resistant software. (Like a red team/blue team thing)
This should do about as much as the Panama Papers.
With organization where we can all cooperate on what we agree on, both publicly and in private groups as we see fit, perhaps on a Federated system of innumerable groups, we could do somethings with this stuff.
Collectively we are stronger and smarter than our governments and the big business that is in League with them. We just need to unite, then take those governments.
And translated right? Right? Lol that’s the biggest wall…language.
The data was leaked by Enlace Hacktivista, previously linked to the Cellebrite data leak People is waiting TheFappening v2.0 for ten years and this guy working on GFW?
Cellebrite, not celebrity. Cellebrite is a digital forensics company from Israel, they are creating controversial spy tools for law enforcement.
And we know who were behind fappening, 5 people went to prison for it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_celebrity_nude_photo_leak#Guilty_pleas
I’m glad you bolded that sentence. It’s important to establish that China bad because they help other nations with technology.
According to the files, their reach spreads outside China’s borders, supplying censorship and surveillance technology to governments in Myanmar, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, and others linked to the Belt and Road Initiative.
When the US calls Chinese technology “censorship and surveillance” you know it’s some good shit they haven’t yet figured out how to conquer in the name of capitalism.
Here’s a fact: to exist on the world stage with the US, proactive measures must be enacted. To fight back against US digital hegemony is a far cry from censorship. It’s a responsible stance.
The fact that anyone could think the flavor of authoritarian justifies abuse. Rather than, you know,; admonishing both as they deserve. Never ceases to baffle.
Never ceases to baffle.
There’s a cure for this confusion. Read Marxist theory.
The Chinese are not marxists. They are whores of wall street, rather pimps, pimping out their population to Wall Street to Garner Western technology and investment. While their workers toil 6 days a week 12 hours a day for substance wages and companies dump their toxins into the ground and Air.
There’s no use in reading theory when you refuse to think critically about it. Plus no where in Marx’s theory does it call for or justify brutal dictatorial authoritarian regimes. The dictatorship of the proletariat was a philosophical and rhetorical construct… Not a litteral one. Which makes the tanky squealing of “read the theory” even more hillarious. You’re worse than the liberals you hate.
Marxism-Leninism is a literal cult, and “read more theory” is the chant they use to kill critical thought.
Those that doubt the Holy Theory are misguided counterrevolutionaries, and only the purest of yes-men that never question anything will join the glorious Vanguard Party™.
You do realize that the original post is on lemmy.zip and not lemmygrad, right?
China […] supplying censorship and surveillance technology to governments in Myanmar, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, and others linked to the Belt and Road Initiative.
Addition:
There is at least one more (officially known) country that is a decisive partner regarding surveillance: Israel.
Between Chinese Surveillance and Israeli Settler Colonialism
[…] China and Israel collaborate to enforce settler-colonialism—through surveillance technology. […] Chinese surveillance technology, through state-backed companies like Hikvision, targets West Bank Palestinians in everyday life and maintains a dehumanizing environment for them. These CCTV cameras […] are often embedded in a larger network of physical infrastructure, software, and data systems. For example, Hikvision cameras feed information into 狼群 (Wolf Pack), a database exclusively of Palestinians from the West Bank used by Israel, including data on permits, family members, addresses, license plates, and whether they are wanted by the authorities or not.
To understand how Hikvision and other Chinese surveillance companies developed their operations, we must look at the role Hikvision plays in maintaining surveillance and policing in the “Xinjiang” region of Northwestern China. […] Hikvision’s parent company is the China Electronics Technology Corporation (CETC, 中国电子科技集团公司), a significant player among China’s central state-owned enterprises and a prominent military contractor […]
Wow, yeah, the Israel connection sure does suck. China is bad because of how close they are to Israel. Of course.
Wait.
I know you are trying to be clever but you are just coming across as immature and stupid. This is a common ass saying so you have no excuse for forgetting it “two wrongs don’t make a right.”
An equivalence does not exist. The US supplied the money, munitions, and political cover for Israel to commit a genocide. Whatever half-baked bullshit connection you want to cook up between China and Israel has no business being compared to the US’s ongoing facilitation of genocide.
To invoke “two wrongs” here is downplaying US and Israeli genocide to own China. Disgusting behavior.
Criticizing you for being a immature little shit is in no way justifying anything. If you need to make up things and invent context to continue this consider not saying dumb shit in the first place and you won’t have to.
Lmao
This is like saying “it’s important to establish that ISIS is bad because they help people fix their cars by installing car bombs”
Car bombs are also “technology”
You really posted this and thought no one would see right through it?
Nice one mate
That is hilariously reductive.
It’s meant to be, the same as it’s parent comment
Maybe, one day, the technology helps us not having to read comments like yours, because the technology blocks them when there are protests in your country…
‘MESA’ really?
Is that Yellow Mesa? (sorry)
