[liberationtech] Briton's software a surprise weapon in Iran cyberwar

[Yosem Companys]

Briton's software a surprise weapon in Iran cyberwarBy Peter Wilkinson

*LONDON, England (CNN) *-- A web designer in London was amazed to discover
that Iranian election protesters are attacking the Iranian president's Web
site using software he developed in his spare time, he told CNN Wednesday.

With anti-government activists in Iran sidestepping official attempts to
silence them on the Internet by posting photos, videos and blogs on sites
like Facebook and Twitter, others are using a site that automatically
refreshes a Web page every few seconds, potentially overloading the host
server.

The page reboot software means that dissidents can "attack" sites with a
barrage of hits -- known as a denial of service attack -- causing them to
appear to users as "unobtainable."

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Web sites was one of those
displaying this message on Monday, according to Britain's Channel 4 News,
although on Tuesday it was loading correctly.

The freely available page refresh site was partly developed by Ryan Kelly
for use with sports results sites and eBay. He said he was unaware it was
being used by Iranian protesters to stop the government from getting out its
message until Tuesday when he received an email from an unknown source
asking him to take the site down.

"Can you please shout (sic) down the website for few weeks. Currently they
are using that website to attack other websites," stated the anonymous
e-mail seen by CNN. [image: Video]Watch how cyberspace is used by opposition
»<http://cnn.site.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Briton%27s+software+a+surprise+weapon+in+Iran+cyberwar+-+CNN.com&expire=-1&urlID=405089906&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2009%2FWORLD%2Fmeast%2F06%2F17%2Firan.elections.hackers%2Findex.html%3Firef%3Dwerecommend&partnerID=211911#cnnSTCVideo>

Kelly, who works for contract publisher Wardour, then discovered that hits
on his own site had risen from 700 on a normal day to 41,000 on Monday.

"I was shocked when I heard my site was being used in this way," the
25-year-old told CNN.

"This exemplifies the power of the Internet that something happening in
London can affect events thousands of miles away in Tehran. It's great it's
being used in this way."

The heavy traffic forced Kelly to temporarily suspend his site, but only
because it was exceeding the volume of traffic on his server. He said he
later received dozens of e-mails requesting him to restore the site, and he
did so.

One message seen by CNN said: "Please bring your site back up as fast as you
can. We need your help in Iran <http://topics.cnn.com/topics/iran> against
Ahmadinejad <http://topics.cnn.com/topics/mahmoud_ahmadinejad>."

Kelly said he supported the protesters in their battle to have the results
of the disputed presidential election overturned. "I suppose I am taking
sides because I've put the site back up, but I have no problems with it
being used in this way."

*All About*Iran <http://topics.cnn.com/topics/Iran> • Mir Hossein
Moussavi<http://topics.cnn.com/topics/Mir_Hossein_Moussavi>• Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad <http://topics.cnn.com/topics/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad>

     Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/06/17/iran.elections.hackers/index.html?iref=werecommend
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