Haystack was a never-completed program intended for network traffic

obfuscation Obfuscation is the obscuring of the intended meaning of communication by making the message difficult to understand, usually with confusing and ambiguous language. The obfuscation might be either unintentional or intentional (although intent u ...

and

encryption In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding information. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plaintext, into an alternative form known as ciphertext. Ideally, only authorized parties can dec ...

. It was promoted as a tool to circumvent

internet censorship Internet censorship is the legal control or suppression of what can be accessed, published, or viewed on the Internet. Censorship is most often applied to specific internet domains (such as Wikipedia.org) but exceptionally may extend to all Int ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkm ...

. Shortly after the release of the first test version, reviewers concluded the software did not live up to promises made about its functionality and security, and would leave its users' computers more vulnerable.

History

Haystack was announced in the context of the perceived wave of

Internet activism during 2009 Iranian election protests Internet activism and, specifically, social networking has been instrumental in organizing many of the 2009 Iranian election protests. Online sites have been uploading amateur pictures and video, and Twitter, Facebook, and blogs have been places fo ...

. There was a great deal of hype surrounding the Haystack project. The

BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

's '' Virtual Revolution'' television series featured the software in the context of attempts to bypass network blocking software in Iran. The project was composed of one programmer and a spokesperson. Early on in the project the CRC claims to have received a manual describing Iran's filtering software, written in

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

, from an Iranian official. Amidst criticism from technologists, including

Jacob Appelbaum Jacob Appelbaum (born 1 April 1983) is an American independent journalist, computer security researcher, artist, and hacker. He studied at the Eindhoven University of Technology and was a core member of the Tor project, a free software network ...

and Danny O'Brien, on September 13, 2010, the Washington Post reported that security concerns had led to suspension of testing of Haystack. A message on the front page of the Haystack web site posted the same day confirmed the report, saying "We have halted ongoing testing of Haystack in Iran pending a security review. If you have a copy of the test program, please refrain from using it." The following day the BBC reported the same news and quoted the CRC as stating that source code to the application would be released.

Shutdown

The resignation of the only programmer on the project, Daniel Colascione, effectively ended development of the Haystack project.Award-Winning Haystack Security System Could Risk Iranian Lives
, retrieved 2010-09-17. The project web site is now defunct.

References

{{Reflist Anonymity networks Vaporware Internet in Iran