San Francisco, CA (PRnine – July 4, 2009) - Today Austin Heap and Daniel Colascione announced the upcoming release of Haystack, a new program to provide unfiltered internet access to the people of Iran. The software package, set to go live this week, specifically targets the Iranian government’s web filtering mechanisms and is available in Windows, Linus, and Mac operating systems to ensure access.
Similar to Freegate (http://blog.austinheap.com/2009/07/02/state-of-freegate-in-iran/), 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,” said Heap, “just unfiltered Internet.”
The network will be supported by donated high-quality servers outside of Iran. Alongside a consortium of web-based activists and private donors will be able to provide an individual user with unfettered internet access that costs the donor $0.015 to $0.0375 per month.
Haystack is designed to be a more efficient and effective long-term solution to its precursor, Proxyheap (http://blog.austinheap.com/2009/06/22/state-of-the-iran-proxies/). Proxyheap, originally launched on June 22 just ten days after the election, played an instrumental role in facilitating internet access in Iran in spite of increasing web surveillance and filtering by the Iranian government.
That project, though, was only envisioned as a bandage. Relying on proxies set up by individual users, Proxyheap was a temporary fix that was (through no fault of the thousands of generous contributors) at times, unreliable due to the Iranian’s government increasing vigilence in blocking such sites. Moreover, individual users in Iran had to request access to a proxy making their utilization more difficult.
Haystack addresses both of these issues by directly taking aim at the Iranian government’s web surveillance mechanisms.
Currently, Heap, Colascione, and colleagues are in the process of stress testing the network of servers and verifying their functionality. Haystack 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.
“I’ve always been a man of principle,” said Colascione, “and helping people just like me gain the same liberty we take for granted is the highest ideal to which I can aspire.”
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. Heap, Colascione, and their colleagues want to continue to support, in whatever way they can, those who started this and will lead it forward - the people.
ABOUT AUSTIN HEAP
Austin Heap is a San Francisco-based IT consultant who, along with a consortium of web-based activists, continue to play an instrumental role in facilitating safe and anonymous internet access for Iranians since their country’s widely disputed June 12th elections. Heap, along with David Suurland, are the public voices for their group of web-based activists, whose work has been featured on several major media outlets, including the New York Times, the Associated Press, CNN, and others. With Daniel Colascione, Heap developed the soon to be released Haystack, a program providing secure unfiltered internet access by bypassing Iranian government web filtering mechanisms.
RELEVANT WEB LINKS
New York Times, “Social Networks Spread Defiance Online”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/16/world/middleeast/16media.html
Associated Press, “’Hacktivists’ take up Iran fight as streets quiet”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090627/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran_hack_backlash_1
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