[liberationtech] Iran

Tue Jun 30 19:44:51 PDT 2009

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/06/29/1230216

Iranians seeking to share videos and other eyewitness accounts of the
> demonstrations that have roiled their country since disputed elections two
> weeks ago are using an Internet encryption program originally developed by
> and for the US Navy<http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/26/protesters-use-navy-technology-to-avoid-censorship/>.
> Designed a decade ago to secure Internet communications between US ships at
> sea, The Onion Router, or TOR, has become one of the most important proxies
> in Iran for gaining access to Web sites such as Twitter, YouTube and
> Facebook.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090627/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran_hack_backlash_1

'Hacktivists' take up Iran fight as streets quietBy SHAYA TAYEFE MOHAJER,
Associated Press WriterSat Jun 27, 3:55 pm ET

EDITOR'S NOTE: Iranian authorities have barred journalists for international
news organizations from reporting on the streets and ordered them to stay in
their offices. This report is based on the accounts of witnesses reached in
Iran and official statements carried on Iranian media.

___

A sharp clampdown by Iranian authorities may have quelled street protests,
but the fight goes on in cyberspace.

Groups of "hacktivists" — Web hackers demanding Internet freedom — say they
are targeting Web pages of Iran's leadership in response to the regime's
muzzling of blogs, news outlets and other sites.

It's unclear how much the wired warriors have disrupted official Iranian
sites. Attempts by The Associated Press to access sites for state news
organizations, including the Islamic Republic News Agency and Fars, were
unsuccessful — with a message saying the links were "broken."

Other Iranian Web sites, including the official site for Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, were able to be viewed.

It's the latest in a widening front of attempts at cyber attacks by
activists and others. Earlier this week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates ordered
the creation of a new military cyber command that will coordinate the
Pentagon's efforts to defend its networks and conduct cyberwarfare.

In the Iranian showdown, the co-founder of the Open Source Movement, Eric S.
Raymond, has launched a site called NedaNet, after 27-year-old Neda Agha
Soltan, who became a global symbol of the postelection protest movement
after videos of her death by gunfire was posted on Web sites.

Raymond described his site as a place for hackers and Iranian protest
movement sympathizers from around the world to team up in developing a
system of proxy sites that cloak the location of users in Iran from the
Iranian government.

Iranian authorities have launched a wide-ranging clampdown on many Web
sites, including blogs, independent news outlets and sites linked to
opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, who claims the June 12 presidential
election was rigged to hand victory to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

On Saturday, Raymond reported the group would be forced to change some of
its tactics because the Iranian government had "upped the level of Internet
censorshipit's engaging in." Iranian government monitors were inspecting
traffic more closely to see if users were accessing blocked web sites, he
said.

"We're trying to provide a covert communication channel for dissenters and
revolutionaries to organize through," said Raymond in a telephone
interview with
The Associated Press.

Raymond said a team of six hackers spend their days writing software to help
Iranian Web users bypass state controls. More than 1,000 other people have
offered bandwidth on servers to host proxy sites.

A Web page titled "Freedom Sucker" shows eight Iranian government sites,
including Ahmadinejad's blog, that are under a constant, automated attack by
the page's anonymous creator. Every second, the page attempts to reboot the
pages in an attempt to overload them.

Other groups are also working to create Internet havens for Iranians,
including a group called Project Hydra and the Free Net project. Raymond
said that many of the groups are wary of allowing media interviews because
hackers tend to operate in anonymity.

Meanwhile, the average Web surfer can simulate an attack on an Iranian state
news organization of their choice. A Web site "War, war, until victory"
allows visitors to engage in symbolic hacktivism and was developed by an
Iranian blogger from Isfahan.

With the click of a button, an attack is simulated on the Web sites,
including IRNA and other state news organizations.

"These buttons are only a way for the frustrations of young people to be
settled and in reality are only an attack on their sorrows," the site's
administrator wrote in an e-mail to the AP. The administrator commented on
condition of anonymity because of fears of government reprisals.

Cyber attacks have been around for years, but have gained increasing
attention from governments and security services since Russian hackers waged
a high-profile blitz on Estonia's government and private sector Web sites in
May 2007. In response, NATO set up an Estonia-based cyber defense center and
plans to include cyber defense in NATO exercises.

___

On the Web:

NedaNet: http://www.catb.org/esr/nedanet/<http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_on_re_mi_ea/storytext/ml_iran_hack_backlash/32517153/SIG=112sl09vu;_ylt=AuQtcKhLvTKjJMYtK5aTn2UUewgF;_ylu=X3oDMTFoZTNuOG9iBHBvcwM0BHNlYwN5bl9zdG9yeV9wcmludF9jb250ZW50BHNsawNodHRwd3d3Y2F0Ym8-/*http://www.catb.org/esr/nedanet/>

"War, War, until victory":
http://yamobile.blogspot.googlepages.com/attack.html<http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_on_re_mi_ea/storytext/ml_iran_hack_backlash/32517153/SIG=11mjg7c83;_ylt=AgUxF5egIFcUoWZxipsk8zUUewgF;_ylu=X3oDMTFoN2Jvc2I2BHBvcwM1BHNlYwN5bl9zdG9yeV9wcmludF9jb250ZW50BHNsawNodHRweWFtb2JpbGU-/*http://yamobile.blogspot.googlepages.com/attack.html>

"Freedom Sucker":
http://warriors-attack.blogspot.com/<http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_on_re_mi_ea/storytext/ml_iran_hack_backlash/32517153/SIG=116m83e9j;_ylt=Ah.ukwC2Guh8h4kYXDZDlFEUewgF;_ylu=X3oDMTFobXM5MHBxBHBvcwM2BHNlYwN5bl9zdG9yeV9wcmludF9jb250ZW50BHNsawNodHRwd2FycmlvcnM-/*http://warriors-attack.blogspot.com/>
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