Educause Security Discussion mailing list archives
Re: Foreign Student Dealing with China's Web Filtering of US Websites
From: Ken Munro <Ken.Munro () MSVU CA>
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 2020 13:42:35 +0000
FYI, unapproved VPNs are illegal in China, and the student could get fined 500 yuan<https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/vpn-punishments-05212020103537.html> I think or worse for using it. For that reason, we do not recommend students use VPNs to access our services. If they do so on their own, that’s one thing, but we don’t feel comfortable recommending a student break the law. I know some institutions with a lot of mainland Chinese students purchase the legal, government-approved Alibaba VPN service<https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alibaba-cloud-vpn/alibaba-cloud-helps-chinese-students-foreign-schools-scale-great-firewall-idUSKCN24O356>, but for one student it wouldn’t make financial sense. Not an easy problem to solve. Best, Ken Munro ________________________________________ Ken Munro Security Compliance and Training Specialist Information Technology and Services Mount Saint Vincent University 166 Bedford Highway Halifax, NS B3M 2J6 (902) 457-6150 ken.munro () msvu ca<mailto:ken.munro () msvu ca> Confidentiality Notice: This email may be private and confidential. If you have received this e-mail by mistake, please immediately notify the sender by e-mail or telephone, delete it from your system, and do not copy or distribute it. Phishing Warning: IT&S does not request passwords or other personal information via email. Messages requesting such information are phishing attempts and should be deleted. From: The EDUCAUSE Security Community Group Listserv <SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU> On Behalf Of Frank Barton Sent: Tuesday, August 25, 2020 10:32 AM To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU Subject: Re: [SECURITY] Foreign Student Dealing with China's Web Filtering of US Websites [ Email originated outside of MSVU, use extra caution. ] While this isn't something that we have direct experience with... recent reports are that PRC is blocking TLS 1.3 outright, so your VPN might have problems for (1) the difference is full-tunnel vs. split-tunnel VPN From a technological perspective, I would go with (2), and have a local (to you) hosted VM that they use, but keep it isolated from everything else - assume that it will be compromised by PRC. I would also recommend talking to your OGC about the ramifications of, effectively, helping a Chinese national bypass the PRC's great firewall Frank On Tue, Aug 25, 2020 at 9:23 AM Bruce Heldman <heldmanb () queens edu<mailto:heldmanb () queens edu>> wrote: We have a foreign student who’ll be returning to mainland China since our Fall semester is online only. Prior experiences he’s had with the Chinese government’s Web filtering suggest he will be blocked from browsing various US sites required for his course work. Are there any options that would help us with this situation? We’ve considered: 1. Granting him VPN access, but I believe non-university wouldn’t be tunneled. It would go through his default gateway. 2. Assigning him a VDI workstation. He would then connect to this university VDI workstation (with or without VPN) and browse from that station. Any suggestions or recommendations are appreciated Bruce Heldman Sr. Director of Technology Infrastructure & Support Queens University of Charlotte 1900 Selwyn Avenue Charlotte, NC 28274 Tel: 704-971-5409 ********** Replies to EDUCAUSE Community Group emails are sent to the entire community list. If you want to reply only to the person who sent the message, copy and paste their email address and forward the email reply. Additional participation and subscription information can be found at https://www.educause.edu/community -- Frank Barton, MBA Security+, ACMT, MCP IT Systems Administrator Husson University PGP Key Fingerprint: 0249DC644EC78D2F6B5CD2C6C94D3EDB57946437 ********** Replies to EDUCAUSE Community Group emails are sent to the entire community list. If you want to reply only to the person who sent the message, copy and paste their email address and forward the email reply. Additional participation and subscription information can be found at https://www.educause.edu/community ********** Replies to EDUCAUSE Community Group emails are sent to the entire community list. If you want to reply only to the person who sent the message, copy and paste their email address and forward the email reply. Additional participation and subscription information can be found at https://www.educause.edu/community
Current thread:
- Foreign Student Dealing with China's Web Filtering of US Websites Bruce Heldman (Aug 25)
- Re: Foreign Student Dealing with China's Web Filtering of US Websites Frank Barton (Aug 25)
- Re: Foreign Student Dealing with China's Web Filtering of US Websites Ken Munro (Aug 25)
- Re: [EXT] [SECURITY] Foreign Student Dealing with China's Web Filtering of US Websites Michael Cole (Aug 25)
- Re: Foreign Student Dealing with China's Web Filtering of US Websites Julian Y Koh (Aug 25)
- Re: Foreign Student Dealing with China's Web Filtering of US Websites Ayala, Daniel (Aug 25)
- Re: Foreign Student Dealing with China's Web Filtering of US Websites Sidharth Nandury (Aug 25)
- Re: Foreign Student Dealing with China's Web Filtering of US Websites Tomo (Aug 25)
- Re: Foreign Student Dealing with China's Web Filtering of US Websites Frank Barton (Aug 25)