Haystack: Good Luck Finding That Needle
Hey Internet, we need your help!
In the upcoming days, Daniel Colascione and I will release a new program to provide unfiltered internet access to the people of Iran. A software package for Windows, Mac and Unix systems, called Haystack, will specifically target the Iranian government’s web filtering mechanisms.
Similar to Freegate, the program directed against China’s “great firewall,” once installed Haystack will provide completely uncensored access to the internet in Iran while simultaneously protecting the user’s identity. No more Facebook blocks, no more government warning pages when you try to load Twitter, just unfiltered Internet.
The network will be supported by donated high-quality servers outside of Iran. We will be able to provide an individual user with unfettered internet access that costs the donor $0.015 to $0.0375 per month.
Proxyheap, the precursor to Haystack, was launched on June 22 just ten days after the election. That project, though, was only envisioned as a bandaid. It relied on proxies set up by individual users that were (through no fault of the thousands of generous contributors) unreliable and temporary. Moreover, individual users in Iran had to request access to a proxy. Haystack is a more efficient, effective and long-term solution.
We are in the process of stress testing the network of servers and verifying their functionality. The program will initially be made available at http://haystack.austinheap.com but will shortly thereafter be available through other distribution mechanisms to ensure maximal availability on the ground in Iran.
The Khamenei/Ahmadinejad government has been extremely effective at silencing prominent members of the opposition. But the uprising in Iran was not the result of top-down leadership, it was the result of individuals using whatever means they had at their disposal to organize and communicate. We want to continue to support, in whatever way we can, those who started this and will lead it forward: the people.
Related posts:
- State of Freegate in Iran
- Haystack Gets A Dell, Dude
- Building the ’stack
- How You Can Help: Iran 2.0 & Haystack
- Haystack grows up, gets a home
haystack win Posted under Iran, Technology by Austin
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you r doing God’s work, thank u, thank u. should be nominated for Nobel peace prize.
by: fromknoxville, Jul 6th at 9:20 pm
you are doing God’s work, thank u, thank u, thank u.
by: fromknoxville, Jul 6th at 9:22 pm
At some point when Haystack is up and running,will you please advise us on it’s performanace? I would greatly appreciate it.
by: MJM, Jul 6th at 11:49 pm
Austin, what you’re doing is fantastic. I wish you the best of luck with Haystack, and hopefully democracy, freedom of speech, and the people will prevail in Iran.
by: Tim, Jul 7th at 12:08 am
Donation money just made. I gave voice to all the people I know, I hope someone can follow me! I hope you collect enough money to get started. I am an Italian System Administrator and I have some server on the ProxyHeap. Good Job!
by: Marco Verdecchia, Jul 7th at 1:56 am
Donation complete! I am also promoting ways to help/donate on Facebook. Thank you for all your hard work. It is truly selfless.
by: Lperk, Jul 7th at 2:20 am
This is a great effort, but why not simply use Tor? It’s already there, ready for use.
by: audunmb, Jul 7th at 9:16 am
I applaud your fine work and dedication. I am sure Haystack will become a wonderful tool for freedom. I do understand that trying to combine the differing resources donated by individuals must be a little bit like herding cats
I do however feel there is great strength also in making use of very diverse resources.
I also fear putting too many eggs in one basket. There is a reason why all security organizations utilize compartmentalization for their highest levels of security.
I hope you and your team will keep in mind the great strength of the masses donating bandwidth and the diversity of operating systems and ip addresses to a Internet freedom project. The very things which make managing small diverse slices of bandwidth and systems difficult also give them great strength; the opposition must wade through them in order to counter the effort. Perhaps a model along the lines of the SETI@home could be employed to further expand the bandwidth available on system when the host computer is not in active use would be helpful as well. In addition to donating say 10% of their bandwidth all the time the systems could donate 100% when they are not performing other uses. While it is attractive to design a system employing a small number of very capable servers professionally managed; it would be better to utilize a very large number of smaller systems.
I feel there is much which could be done to simplify the installation and lock down of proxies donated by individuals to make them more reliable and their use more fault tolerant. Many posted guides, to help the somewhat tech savvy get proxies up and running and your proxyheap testing etc. did help a great deal but required at least some tech savvy.
Some web based tools to assist the not so tech savvy individual to accomplish this by using techniques to automate as much as possible of the installation and filling in form questions with instructions on how to find the proper answers for the donators could be developed. Proxyheap and the tutorials were a BIG step in this direction but the process could be made much easier using online tools to build custom installation packages with the permission of proxy developers such as Tor and Squid. Envision a website(s) where a potential contributor could log on, answer a few simple questions about their system and have a custom installation package generated for them to download and install with all the proper blocks and allows already made the default along with system specific information such as bandwidth limitations etc.. Then a series of servers could run very extensive testing not only of functionality but also of security of the donated proxies and provide automated feedback to the folks donating the proxies.
Feedback is important and should be provided via automated emails on both success and failures. Further I think even the installation assist servers themselves should be compartmented for reliability and security so that there would be no single point failures or security breaches possible.
One technique which could be used is to have master servers actually control the activation and shutdown of the individual proxy’s remotely. It is harder to whack a mole when it only pops it head up when needed; making it difficult for oppressors to locate and block them.
The master servers could also run periodic tests to make sure the proxy’s were still operational and remove them from the cue if not and notify the owner of the failure so they could be brought back online or closed down if their ip was found to have been blocked. Again feedback to the folks donating their resources is important to maintain their interest and support. They should know if their system is currently functional and being used. If it is no longer of value then they should be notified and a uninstall package should also be provided so they can remove the proxy software easily if it becomes no longer usable. The uninstall package should also notify the master servers when the proxy is no longer available.
Just some random thoughts of mine. My best wishes to you and your team! Fighting for Freedom is always worth the effort!
by: SirFalot, Jul 7th at 9:41 am
Austin–
Can you use some donated frequent flyer miles in order to help out with the San Fran trips? Happy to donate $$$ if that is easier…
by: Geoff Shandler, Jul 7th at 10:16 am
Sent what I could right now. After it is set up could we maybe buy some to donate to people in Iran?
by: Perry Taylor, Jul 7th at 3:33 pm
You’re fantastic, Austin! I donated last night. Nice to know we can actually do something to help other than tweet and wear green!
by: Joanne Elmore, Jul 7th at 4:19 pm
Donation made. Best of luck and please keep us updated on your progress.
by: DTD_FI, Jul 7th at 4:21 pm
so awesome to inspire freedom of ideas and help LIBERTY!
by: kimp, Jul 7th at 4:57 pm
You and your friends are great. Thank you very much for what you are doing. Best of luck. I made a donation and ask everyone to please donate and let this great project move forward…
by: Raymond, Jul 7th at 6:16 pm
just donated, thank you so much for your hard work
by: NYS, Jul 7th at 11:22 pm
Great work that I want to help. Keep us informed of the new organization’s mission statement, board members, and finances. Transparency is very important for censorship-busting efforts because it gives donors and users confidence.
by: Josh Rubin, Jul 8th at 11:10 am
And then a hero comes along . . .
by: Kate Zeiss, Jul 8th at 11:29 am
You’re good men, Austin and Daniel.
by: Hootan, Jul 8th at 1:36 pm
We are under an unbelievable pressure from a brutal government headed by a bunch of sadist and fascist criminals. All the information and communication channels are blocked. The tortures on the protesters arrested are of a sort we shame to explain. We are a desperate nation in the hands of these beasts. Thank you so much to try to help us being in touch with the free world. I do shake your kind hands and admire your humanity.
by: Azad Andish - Tehran, Jul 8th at 2:52 pm
Thank you for your good work! I’ve been folowing Iranian politics since the revolution in 78/79, but Not to the extent I have since 18 Tir. All the protesters in their white shirts really got my attention, because they looked so much like our youth here, in Utah. I pray for their freedom.
I feel helpless to do much. I have my Tor bridge, and have been relaying since June 17th, but who knows how much comes from Iran. My Face-book friends, all think I went crazy on June 13th, since helping spread the word about Iran has become an obsession.
I’m glad I could help support you financially, for all the good work you do. God Bless you!
by: Brandon H, Jul 8th at 10:49 pm
‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.’ E. Burke
That’s tremendous work, guys.
I just linked this on our blog, hope we can send some traffic your way.
by: kim, Jul 9th at 6:33 pm
Just made my donation to the Haystack project.
Feels good to be able to contribute, besides tweeting and wearing my green t-shirts!
Austin and Daniel: You are doing a great job here!
These are truly wonderful times, when PC and Internet projects can help people in their fight for democracy and freedom.
The world is shrinking and communication between people is growing.
Thanks to You guys, despots and dictators are having a hard time concealing their criminal, dark deeds.
God bless You and Your work!
God bless the people of Iran!
Allah_o_Akbar
Marg Bar Diktator!
by: Jens Lumbye, Jul 10th at 3:38 am
Thousand Thank to you and good luck in your work, remember us Iranian owe you for this great help a big one.
by: Mohammad, Jul 10th at 7:41 am
Faithfully awaiting Haystack.
by: MJM, Jul 11th at 1:30 am
Dear Austin; I wish you all the best with the Haystack server project. Thank you very much for what you are doing. I just made my initial donation and hope to be able to support you with many more donations in the near future!… btw. loved the comments previously posted by SirFalot & agree; I have always thought if someone with proper know-how and programming skills such as yourself could come up with a model like SETI@home project for the distributed bandwidth; there are millions of Iranians and concerned folks around the globe who would be willing to participate and share part of their bandwidth with the people of Iran! the key point is it must a simple app. Installer/Uninstaller so an average user could easily install on their machines as most of us are not quite tech savvy to set up TOR relays, proxies etc. but so many people like to help. God Bless you!
by: Fari, Jul 11th at 1:17 pm
Dear Austin and Daniel:
I don’t mean to be a pessimist, but how do we (outside of Iran) and our friends and family in Iran can be sure that you are not with the dictator government of Iran and are not working with them? Your work is admirable, but then again, we want to be sure our beloved people in Iran are not reported to the government and killed as a result of wanting to practice their rights of being on Facebook, etc.
Thanks,
Raana
by: Raana, Jul 11th at 4:07 pm
hey
i have some friends in iran and would like to give them a proxy with irc, yahoo msgnr, https… i went to the irc proxy channel on freenode and asked about setting up a proxy on ubuntu linux and got some vague answer to install squid3. after getting no info on how to set it up after install & hassling people i went to google but gave up since id spent a whole day to no avail and am not wasting another to learn to be a squid3 administrator.
i just want to setup a proxy. i dont care if its an open proxy as theres nothing important here. id like just a script or easy 10min howto since im a busy person.
email me if u know anything and ill provide the proxy.
by: genjix, Jul 11th at 6:57 pm
Thanks, Austin. Your voice via BBC last night inspired us, and we believe that Internet are great vehicle for good people. Like you.
by: bambang haryanto (indonesia), Aug 6th at 10:09 pm
Fantastic work and very worthy indeed. Article on BBC about your work. We people of the world salute you and Daniel Colascione.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8186761.stm
by: Behrooz, Aug 7th at 4:13 am
Even though this writer lives in a free society – and perhaps because of – what you guys are doing is just awesome (an understatement). This write also joins the rest in saluting both of you.
by: SR, Aug 8th at 9:24 am
You’re such a helmet in a hell’s rain of blood!
Thanks bro!
by: Sasan, Sep 19th at 6:29 pm
any updates?
by: user, Sep 29th at 9:58 am
I think I wrote months ago but again, it is
good to have humans like you on the earth,
doing what you are doing to help people
fight for peace. Thank you
by: Patrice Yourdon, Nov 1st at 9:26 am
Where do I find the link to download the program
by: Lola Atobatele, Feb 6th at 3:56 pm
I’m so glad not ALL people are only using the internet to line their pockets. THIS is what the internet was made for. Resilient freedom of information.
Well Done!
by: Paul Yak, Feb 6th at 3:57 pm
Good work dude !!
by: Bigfoothippy, Feb 8th at 10:42 am
You need any help with anything???
by: Jason, Feb 8th at 6:59 pm
hey could you send me an e-mail on how Haystack actually does what it does im confused to how it works, my e-mail is jonineedshelp@hotmail.com thank you very much
by: Spokes, Feb 16th at 7:40 pm