The Chinese government is on the defensive after its mandate requiring web filtration software on all computers stirred a huge controversy.  In the party’s official paper, the Guangming Daily, a report called “the software a breakthrough in the drive for a ‘civilized Internet’”.  State television even claimed that the “filtering was endorsed by a ‘vast number’ of parents and experts.”  Who these vast number of supporters are and where they have been voicing their support is anyone’s guess.

Rather, reports about the flaws and the outright absurdity of the mandate are surfacing in great numbers.  The Wall Street Journal Blog reports that some internet users have started substituting “the words for Green Dam (绿坝, pronounced lüba in Mandarin) with homophones that translate as ‘filter bully’ (滤霸) or ‘donkey king’ (驴霸).”

Worse, the University of Michigan conducted a study of the software and discovered “serious security vulnerabilities due to programming errors.”  Their report continues:

Once Green Dam is installed, any web site the user visits can exploit these problems to take control of the computer. This could allow malicious sites to steal private data, send spam, or enlist the computer in a botnet. In addition, we found vulnerabilities in the way Green Dam processes blacklist updates that could allow the software makers or others to install malicious code during the update process.

In short, the study concludes, “deployed in its current form, [Green Dam] will significantly weaken China’s computer security.”

To see the full University of Michigan report, click here.