one Internal files A little-known Chinese company leaked curtains about how digital censorship tools are sold and exported globally. Geedge Networks sold commercial “big firewalls” to at least four countries, including Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Ethiopia and Myanmar. The groundbreaking leak shows the company’s ability to monitor, intercept and hack internet traffic. Researchers examining the documents described it as “digital authoritarianism as a service.”
But, I want to focus on another thing that the document shows: Although people often regard China’s great firewall as a single, all-around government system unique to China, the actual process of developing and maintaining it is the same as Western surveillance technology. Geedge works with academic institutions in R&D to adapt its business strategies to suit the needs of different customers and can even repurpose the remaining infrastructure from competitors. Leaked documents show that in Pakistan, Geedge reached a contract and then replaced equipment made by Canadian company Sandvine.
Coincidentally, another leak from another Chinese company published this week reinforces the same view. On Monday, researchers at Vanderbilt University made public A 399-page document From the Chinese company, Golaxy, which uses AI to analyze social media and generate promotional materials. The leaked documents, including the internal tone deck, business goals and conference notes, may come from disgruntled former employees – the last two pages accused Golaxy of abusing workers by paying salaries and prolonged hours. The document has been sitting on the public internet for several months before another researcher tagged it as Brett Goldstein, a research professor at the Vanderbilt School of Engineering.
The main business of Golaxy is different from Geedge’s: it collects open source information from social media, relationships between politicians and news organizations, and drives target narratives online through a synthetic social media profile. In the leaked documents, Golaxy claims to be China’s “first brand in intelligence big data analysis”, serving three major customers: the Chinese Communist Party, the Chinese government and the Chinese military. The included technical demonstrations will focus on geopolitical issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and the U.S. elections. Unlike Geedge, Golaxy appears to be targeting domestic government entities only as customers.
However, there are many things that make both companies compare, especially in how their business works. Geedge and Google both maintain close ties according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the world’s highest government research institution. Natural index. Both of them sell services to Chinese provincial government agencies whose local issues are monitored and budgeted for monitoring and publicity tools.
Golaxy did not immediately respond to Wired’s request for comment. On the previous one reply Regarding the New York Times, the company denied collecting data against U.S. officials and said media reports were misinformed. Vanderbilt’s researchers said they witnessed the company’s removal of pages from its website after its initial report.
Closer than it looks
In the West, academic scholars often become entrepreneurs or start businesses when they see opportunities to commercialize their cutting-edge research. The Galaxy seems to be no exception. Many of the company’s leading researchers are still occupying attractions at CAS, according to leaked documents.
However, there is no guarantee that CAS researchers will receive government grants—like public university professors in the United States, they cannot bet on their startups to win federal contracts. Instead, they need to follow government agencies like any private company. A leaked document shows that Golaxy signed a sales target of RMB 42 million (about US$5.9 million) with Chinese government agencies in 2020. Another spreadsheet for around 2021 lists the company’s existing customers, including branches of China’s military, state security and provincial police departments, as well as other potential customers.
