[liberationtech] Iran cuts 95% of Internet traffic

[Yosem Companys]

From: Scott Weeks <surfer at mauigateway.com>

Quoting a journalist, so....

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/21/irans-digital-shutdown-other-regimes-will-be-watching-closely

First quote out of order from the article:

"Internet penetration and complexity has vastly grown in Iran
over the past decade, but the country’s users still connect
to the global network through just two gateways. Both are
controlled by the regime, and can be blocked when it chooses."

<There's the problem. My company alone has more than two...>

"Access to the internet is gradually being restored in Iran
after an unprecedented five-day shutdown that cut its population
off from the rest of the world and suppressed news of the
deadliest unrest since the country’s 1979 revolution."

"The internet-freedom group Access Now recorded 75 internet
outages in 2016, which more than doubled to 196 last year."

"Iranians were cut off from the global internet, but
internally, networks appeared to be functioning relatively
normally."

"the Iranian government has been working to develop the
so-called “halal net”, a closed-off version of the internet
similar to China’s “great firewall”. Iran has been
pressuring businesses to shift their operations inside the
country on to what it calls the National Information Network,
which now boasts its own banking platforms, industrial
services and messaging apps – ones that activists believe
are closely surveilled by authorities."

<RFC 1984>

"The Trump sanctions have actually made it easier for Iran
to seal its citizens off from the global internet ... Many
Iranian tech firms have been left with no option but to use
the Islamic Republic’s internal network and infrastructure
instead."  (reordered quote)

"The last time Iran attempted to choke off access, during
unrest in January 2018, it was forced to open connections
again after just 30 minutes, Rashidi says.

“It was a disaster,” he says. “Nothing was working: all
the government offices, hospitals, financial services
were gone ... they’ve discovered a lot of things do need
access to the outside world”

This time, it appears to have gone more smoothly: two
sources able to monitor internet traffic inside Iran
confirmed to the Guardian there was no significant
disruption, indicating hospitals, financial software
and even ride-sharing apps were still able to function,
even as Iranians were unable to connect to websites
such as Google."

"Other authoritarian governments are pursuing a similar
path. This month, Russia implemented a new law requiring
ISPs to install equipment better able to identify the
source of web traffic, as part of a strategy to one day
be able to completely re-route the Russian internet
through state-controlled data points."

<RFC 1984>  :)

“Regimes around the world will be watching very closely
both the public response and the response of the
international community,” he says. “If it turns out
this is feasible to implement, they will see there is
no political cost.”

scott