| Developer(s) | Ultrareach |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 11.03 |
| Type | Proxy system |
| Website | http://ultrasurf.us/ |
Ultrasurf is a free Internet censorship circumvention product of Ultrareach Internet Corporation.
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The software works by creating an encrypted HTTP tunnel between the user’s computer and a central pool of proxy servers, enabling users to bypass firewalls and censorship.[1] The software’s developers make use of sophisticated, proprietary anti-blocking technology to overcome filtering and censorship online.[1]
Ultrareach was founded by Silicon Valley technologists in 2002 and is funded in part through ongoing contracts with the U.S. government’s Broadcasting Board of Governors, which administers Voice of America and Radio Free Asia.[2] Ultrasurf was originally designed to enable internet users in China to safely bypass China’s Golden shield, but now has as many as eleven million users worldwide.[2]
In December 2011, Jacob Appelbaum and Roger Dingledine of the Tor Project described the fallibility of Ultrasurf in protecting the anonymity of users, in their presentation at the 28th Chaos Communication Congress (28c3). As part of their presentation on developments in online anonymity technologies they demonstrated how Ultrasurf clearly leaves the user's IP trail exposed.[3]
Wired magazine in 2010 calls Ultrasurf "one of the most important free-speech tools on the Internet" for enabling citizens of repressive countries to access and share information during times of humanitarian or human rights crises.[4]
In a 2007 study, Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet & Society found Ultrasurf to be the "best performing" of all tested circumvention tools during in-country tests, and recommended it for widespread use. The report noted, however, that Ultrareach is designed primarily as a circumvention product, rather than as an anonymity tool, and suggested that users concerned about anonymity should disable browser support for active content when using Ultrasurf.[1]
According to unconfirmed speculation on the French computer security-related website Reflets, Ultrasurf contains spyware and several trojan horses, which may actually enable government surveillance.[5][6] McAfee and many other antivirus programs also report Ultrasurf as a backdoor trojan.[7]