Alpha Crucis Radio

All outgoing access to computer networks in North Korea, as well as the MilNet in America, on the VPN, proxy, and Wifi  is being blocked until further notice.

This is due to the threat from Anonymous to hack and shut down nuclear missible networks on both sides, should either come close to a launch. This is being done, because we do NOT want any of our computes to potentially be the target of  a DPRK nuclear missle, and we do NOT want the Australian Federal Police and the FBI knocking on our door, if Anonymous were attempt to use any our WiFI, proxy, or VPNs to shut down US nuclear launch systems.

Unfortunately, there will be colleterai damage. If you are on a military base, and use the VPN to bypass filtering of sites like WorldNetDaily or Infowars, you will also be blocked from accessing the VPN, as the filter on the VPN server makes no distinction. It simply blocks all communications with that IP address range. We have blocked all IP addressses of 11.x.x.x. We apologise to the the men and women in uniform of the United States Armed Forces, but this must be done to prevent our servers from potentially being used by Anonymous to shut down military launch systems. So you will have to find another proxy or VPN to use to bypass filtering of websites.

This will also cause those few people in the DPRk with internet access to be unable to use our VPN or proxies, as the same problems will occur with incoming connection attempts from addresses in the DPRK, as we have blocked communications, on the VPN and proxies, to the entire address space for the DPRK as well.

One story in Techdirt indicates that a scay new expansion of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) in America is now being written, and a lot of the stuff in it is very scary, but what we think could be added is even scarier.

If you were in the computer newsgroup comp.security.firewalls, I would be well know as one guy who used to lock horns with a few of the denizens of that group. Particularly the issue of Internet radio. As the owner and operator of Alpha Crucis Radio, I see nothing wrong with Internet radio at work, as long as your WORK is GETTING DONE.

Some of the people of the time believed that not only should be a felony crime to listen to internet radio in violation of company polciies, the providers of services, such as VPNs should also be liable, if someone at work just HAPPENS to use their service to bypass the company firewall. Could we see something like this added to the CFAA amendments when the bill ultimately goes to markup? It would not be surprising if it did. Something like this could harm the VPN industry even more than SOPA, PIPA, and the like EVER could.

It would be IMPOSSIBLE for VPN and proxy providers to police this, particularly if the content being accessed is otherwise legal Even dial-up ISPS, the few that are left anyway, could, we think, also be potentially liable, if some of what the denizens of comp.security.firewalls adovicated a few years ago were to ever be enacted into law. This is because someone could merely plug a modem into the computer, and then dial out to an ISP, and then simply charge the call to his or her credit card, leaving nothing showing on the company telephone bill.

And with the USA wanting to make laws apply worldwide, a lowly dial-up ISP, say, in the Australian Outback (Australia does not have broadband very far out from cities yet) could see its owners extradited to the USA, if such a law were ever enacted.

When you consider that it is being proposed that ANY violation of CFAA also be prosecutable under RICO, the kind of laws that some network administrators, who are denizens of comp.security.fiealls, have advocated, could put a regulatory burden on VPN and proxy providers that could not POSSIBLY comply with.

Another scary part of the law makes even TALKING about such actions, without even PLANNING them or PUTTING THEM INTO ACTION a crime as well. So, for example, if dgs, who has been trying to silence us for nearly 4 years now, were to threaten to put us any banned list, merel THREATENING to break into a system and erase that ban would be illegal (under currnent law, it is not).

Hopefully Congress will not add that onto what is already a draconian expansion of the CFAA, but you never know.