WASHINGTON: A developer of a program called "Haystack" designed to allow Iranians to circumvent government restrictions on the Internet pulled the plug on the software on Tuesday amid security concerns.
"We have halted ongoing testing of Haystack in Iran pending a security review," HaystackNetwork.com said in a brief statement. "If you have a copy of the test program, please refrain from using it."
Austin Heap, co-founder of the San Francisco-based Censorship Research Center (CRC) and a developer of Haystack, also discussed concerns over the security of the program on his personal website, AustinHeap.com.
"Recently, there has been a vigorous debate in the security community regarding Haystack’s transparency and security," Heap said. "We believe that many of the points made in this debate were valid.
"We have begun contacting users of Haystack to tell them to cease using the program," he said. "We will not resume testing until this third party review is completed and security concerns are addressed in an open and transparent way."
Haystack’s mission statement is to "provide safe, unfiltered Internet to the people of Iran affected by the government’s coordinated censorship efforts."
The CRC released Haystack following Iran’s disputed presidential election last year to allow Iranians to surf the Web and communicate anonymously.
