Break the barriers. Free the voices.

Engineered by Advanced Circuiting Inc

1 Internet censorship ...... 3

The Power of nthLink ...... 4

Censorship Circumvention ...... 4 Self-Recovery ...... 5 Strong Privacy and Security ...... 5 Simplicity ...... 6 Scalable ...... 6 Cost Effective ...... 6 About Us ...... 7

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INTERNET CENSORSHIP

The Internet has permanently altered how we communicate and live. Advancements in technology have given us immediate access to information with a few clicks and taps. However, an alarming number of authoritarian governments have imposed tighter control over the free flow of information with invasive technologies.

An example is the creation of the "Great Firewall of China"; a technology used to closely monitor the activity of Internet users and block access to information deemed unfavorable to the authoritarian rule. People in China searching for Voice of America's website or those of other human rights organizations will find irrelevant or empty search results. The censorship technology has been adopted by other authoritarian governments to maintain control over the citizens.

Since 2016, Advanced Circuiting Inc (ACI) has engaged in creating Internet censorship circumvention technologies for people living under the shadows of authoritarian rule.

ACI's state-of-the-art tool, nthLink, is a powerful anti-censorship mobile application capable of circumventing Internet censorship and self-recovering from blocking events. Most importantly, it incorporates strong encryption to protect the information flow between the consumer and the source.

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THE POWER OF NTHLINK

Safe and reliable access to the Internet is a powerful accelerator for people in authoritarian regions to realize their democratic aspirations. It is instrumental for at-risk populations to receive unbiased news, research issues, express political views, expose government misconducts, and communicate with other users without fear of persecution. The nthLink mobile application enables everyday users in censored regions to gain safer and unfettered access to the Internet.

CENSORSHIP CIRCUMVENTION

Authoritarian governments use sophisticated Internet blocking and monitoring technologies to control the free flow of information. nthLink is built on the Jigsaw Outline and Shadowsocks technologies, which are proven to be effective in circumventing even the strictest Internet censorship systems. nthLink’s traffic masking technology alters the traffic pattern to simulate regular HTTPS traffic, thus makes it more difficult for censors to detect or block nthLink.

User traffic is encrypted with stream ciphers to counter packet/content filters imposed by the censors and provide an additional layer of security for nthLink users.

4 DNS lookups are routed to DNS servers maintained by Google, Level 3, MIT, and other trusted providers to circumvent DNS blocking and poisoning. nthLink’s directory server and VPN/Shadowsocks server addresses frequently change to prevent censors from blocking IP addresses.

SELF-RECOVERY

If some or all server addresses are blocked, nthLink’s blocking recovery algorithm recalculates new access point addresses in real time based on the user’s location, device, time, and other information. No pre-allocated server addresses are stored on the client side, thus allowing users to reconnect to the nthLink network even if the users have not used the nthLink mobile app for an extended period.

STRONG PRIVACY AND SECURITY nthLink client apps do not store sensitive or personal information on user devices. User information is never transmitted to nthLink servers, and nthLink servers never log traffic patterns that can be used to track personally identifiable information. The client IP addresses are hashed in the server security logs to identify only the country where the traffic is originated. The key is to maintain minimal user and traffic data, necessary to ensure reliable service to the users and provide transparency to partners and sponsors. If we do not have it, no one can steal it. nthLink utilizes the strongest industrially available encryption to keep user communications private and prevents censors from performing content/packet inspection. nthLink’s core component is based on Outline, which is open source and has been audited by Radically Open Security (2017) and Cure53 (2018).

5 SIMPLICITY

Once installed, the nthLink mobile app does not require additional setup or registration. The user can connect his/her entire device to the nthLink VPN/ Shadowsocks network with the push of a button. With nthLink’s automatic network discovery and blocking recovery, the mobile clients can reliably connect to the nthLink network at any time.

SCALABLE

The nthLink server architecture is designed to scale quickly to support any number of users. Our 24/7 network monitoring system dynamically allocates server and network resources based on the current load.

COST EFFECTIVE nthLink is lightweight and faster than conventional VPN and, with our advanced network discovery and blocking recovery technologies, Advanced Circuiting Inc can materially reduce the operating cost and deliver better value for our partners and sponsors.

6 ABOUT US

Advanced Circuiting Inc was formed not in pursuit of profit but by a desire to help people. It was started in 2016 as a project by a group of experienced software and information security engineers to support human rights lawyers to obtain censored information and to express their perspectives to the outside world.

Advanced Circuiting Inc excels in both the sophistication of censorship circumvention technology and the reliability of the service. With years of experience in this specialty area, we provide the users in targeted geographies simple, safe, and reliable access to otherwise censored information.

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