By Ivan Watson
A familiar digital chime rang on the computer. Someone was calling via Skype from Syria.
It was a law student and opposition activist from the city of Homs who uses the pseudonym Musaab al Hussaini to protect himself from arrest. He had fresh reports that security forces were shooting guns wildly in the neighborhood Baba Amrr.
Hussaini was calling via Psiphon, an online encryption system he had just installed that morning. He said it protected him from detection by the Syrian security services, also known as mukhabarat.
„Yeah, I feel safe now, because I use software to get an encryption connection to the Internet,“ Hussaini said. He said Psiphon also allowed him to circumvent government firewalls which block access to popular communications sites like Skype. (more on edition.cnn.com)
