Chinese root server is shut down - DNS and censorship

[Robin Gross]

I'd like to learn more about the implications for censorship in this  
recent episode with the Chinese root server and NIC server in  
Chile.    Any DNS experts provide any guidance?

Thanks,
Robin

http://www.itworld.com/networking/102576/after-dns-problem-chinese- 
root-server-shut-down

After DNS problem, Chinese root server is shut down
The server is thought to have extended Chinese filtering technology  
to Chile and the US

by Robert McMillan
March 26, 2010, 08:10 PM —  IDG News Service —


A China-based root DNS server associated with networking problems in  
Chile and the U.S. has been disconnected from the Internet.

The action by the server's operator, Netnod, appears to have resolved  
a problem that was causing some Internet sites to be inadvertently  
censored by a system set up in the People's Republic of China.

On Wednesday, operators at NIC Chile noticed that several ISPs  
(Internet service providers) were providing faulty DNS information,  
apparently derived from China. China uses the DNS system to enforce  
Internet censorship on its so-called Great Firewall of China, and the  
ISPs were using this incorrect DNS information.

That meant that users of the network trying to visit Facebook,  
Twitter and YouTube were directed to Chinese computers instead.

In Chile, ISPs VTR, Telmex and several others -- all of them  
customers of upstream provider Global Crossing -- were affected, NIC  
Chile said in a statement on Friday. The problem, first publicly  
reported on Wednesday, appears to have persisted for a few days  
before it was made public, the statement says.

A NIC Chile server in California was also hit with the problem, NIC  
Chile said. While it's not clear how this server was getting the bad  
DNS information, it came via either Network Solutions or Equinix,  
according to NIC Chile.

Network Solutions wasn't to blame as it does not offer backbone  
provider services to NIC Chile, said Rick Wilhelm, the company's vice  
president of engineering. Equinix and Global Crossing could not  
immediately be reached for comment.

Netnod, which maintains a copy of its root DNS server in China, has  
now "withdrawn route announcements" made by the server, according to  
company CEO Kurt Lindqvist. This effectively disconnects the server  
from the Internet. In an e-mail interview, Lindqvist said he could  
not recall when his company took this action.

Netnod insists that its server did not contain the bad data that  
redirected Internet traffic, and security experts agree, saying that  
its data was probably being altered by the Chinese government  
somewhere on China's network, in order to enforce the country's Great  
Firewall.








IP JUSTICE
Robin Gross, Executive Director
1192 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA  94117  USA
p: +1-415-553-6261    f: +1-415-462-6451
w: http://www.ipjustice.org     e: robin at ipjustice.org



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