Alimardani says that it seems that the mobile services are irregular and for many people private virtual networks, which can be used to avoid censorship, have stopped working. This means that it was difficult to reach people in the country and potentially for information to go out, says Alimardani. “Some family members who left Tehran today were offline and disconnected from the Internet and eventually found some connectivity when they were 200 kilometers outside Tehran in another province,” explains Alimardani. “My connections are mainly with people who use broadband wi-fi, but this has also been unstable.”
In the last decade, the countries have increasingly made the draconic step to fully or partially close internet connectivity for citizens in times of perceived crisis. They were there 296 arrests of last yearAccording to Access Now, a non -profit organization for the rights of the Internet that keeps trace of the actions, the greatest number of any registration. The arrests are often linked to repressive governments that try to limit protests that could damage them, to limit people’s ability to collect and communicate freely, as part of the conflicts and even try to stop cheating in the exams.
“The Internet is an anchor of salvation, we have seen him in many places in conflict,” says Hanna Kreitem, director of technology and internet development at the Internet Society, which was Tracing the blackouts in Iran. Kreitem states that when connectivity to Iran started to come down for the first time on June 13, he heard from people with relatives in Iran that their services had significantly slowed down. “People under fire use it to receive news, request help, know more safe areas and communicate with loved ones. And for people out to know what is happening and know their loved ones.”
To limit connectivity, countries use more different technical approaches. Iran has developed its alternative to the Internet, an intranet system called National Information Network, known as Nin, for years. The Nin, second Freedom House analysisIt allows “levels” of Internet access and allows the government to censor content and push people to Iranian apps cultivated at home, as alternative messaging apps, which could have “weak privacy and safety features”. (Freedom House evaluates Iran as “not free” in his last Internet freedom measureshighlighting persistent arrests, increased costs and efforts to push people on the national internet.)
Amir Rashidi, director of digital rights and the safety of the organization of human rights focused on Iran Miaan, states that among the recent arrests, there have been greater efforts to push people to the Iranian apps. “In an atmosphere of fear, in which people are simply trying to stay in touch with their loved ones, many turn to these insecure platforms out of despair,” he published onlineSaying wired that a messaging app called Bale seems to attract attention. “Since they are hosted on Nin, they will also work during arrest,” he says.
Iran is not the first country to limit the access of people to the Internet – and without censorship information – with the potential justification for the protection of IT security or security in a wider way, says Lukasz Olejnik, an independent consultant and senior research visit at the Kings College war department. Since global internet arrests have risen in the last decade, says Olejnik, myanmar officials, India, Russia and Belarus have mentioned all security reasons for the implementation of Blackout.
“The internet arrests are largely ineffective against computer attacks at state level in the real world,” says Olejnik. He explains that military and critical infrastructure systems, such as energy networks or transport systems, will generally operate on separate networks and will not be accessible from the open internet. “Professional IT operations could use other means of access, although it could actually make it difficult to command and control part of the distributed malware (in this case),” says Olejnik. “What would mainly block would be access to the information for the company.”
Witness “Alimardani states that the technical details in support of any statement according to which internet restrictions are intended to protect computer security are” unclear “, and ultimately, the goal of these efforts could be to control people within Iran.” The official narrative of the state news channels interprets a strong war against Israel and a path to victory “, says Alimardani. And, in the worst case, it could encourage the Iranians to rebel, further eroding the power of the regime. “
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