iran

Iran expected to permanently cut off Internet by August

Millions of Internet users in Iran could soon be permanently cut off from the Web, social networks, and e-mail.

In a statement released last week, Reza Taghipour, the Iranian minister for Information and Communications Technology, announced plans to establish a national intranet within five months in an effort to create a "clean Internet," the International Business Times reported today. "All Internet Service Providers (ISP) should only present National Internet by August," Taghipour said in the statement.

Web sites such as Google, Hotmail, and Yahoo will be blocked and replaced by government-administered services such as Iran Mail … Read more

How U.S. sanctions hurt Iranian Internet activists

analysis President Bill Clinton's 1997 electronic embargo against Iran, which curbed its citizens' access to U.S.-based software and Web sites, continues to create legal hassles for American Web companies.

In August 1997, Clinton signed an executive order saying U.S. companies and individuals could not provide "goods, technology, or services to Iran" -- a decree that led to unintended consequences such as Utah-based Bluehost giving the boot to Iranian bloggers and opensource software site SourceForge.net denying access to Iranians.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's announcement yesterday, which was designed to complement … Read more

Iran may have committed cyber-attack on BBC

Just days after watchdog group Reporters Without Borders named Iran as one of the "Enemies of the Internet," the BBC is now claiming to be the victim of a cyber-attack possibly perpetrated by the Iranian authorities.

The news source says that two of its satellite feeds into Iran were jammed earlier this month coinciding with a denial-of-service attack in which some parts of the BBC's e-mail and Internet services were unavailable. The director-general of the BBC Mark Thompson will be giving a speech to the Royal Television Society shortly, in which he plans to explain how the … Read more

'60 Minutes' profiles threat posed by Stuxnet

Stuxnet took the world by storm two years ago.

The worm was different from previous viruses: it wasn't designed to steal money, identities, or passwords. Instead, the malware targeted the controls at industrial facilities such as power plants, inspiring talk of a top secret, government-sponsored cyberwar.

At the time of its discovery in June 2010, the assumption was that espionage lay behind the effort, but subsequent analysis uncovered the ability of the malware to control plant operations outright--specifically an Iranian nuclear facility.

In addition to showing that a cyberattack could cause significant physical damage to a facility, it also … Read more

Ex-CIA chief: Stuxnet a good idea

Former CIA chief Gen. Mike Hayden says the Stuxnet virus that sabotaged the Iranian nuclear program was a "good idea."

"This was a good idea, all right? But I also admit this was a big idea too," Hayden said in an interview to be broadcast Sunday night on the CBS program "60 Minutes." "The rest of the world is looking at this and saying, 'Clearly, someone has legitimated this kind of activity as acceptable.'"

The computer worm was fingered as a culprit in the mass failure of centrifuges at Iran's nuclear … Read more

Iranians cut off from Internet again

Iranians suffered a wide spread Internet outage today, the second disruption of in the past 10 days to leave millions without access to e-mail and social networks.

The latest disruption blocked access to all encrypted International sites outside the country that operate on Secure Sockets Layer protocol, Reuters reports.

"E-mail, proxies, and all the secure channels that start with 'https' are not available," a Tehran-based technology expert told Reuters. "The situation regarding accessing these Web sites is even worse than last week because the VPNs are not working."

Many Iranians use proxy servers over Virtual Private … Read more

Tor anonymity project looks to help Iranians sidestep Net ban

The privacy-focused Tor Project is working on helping Iranians sidestep increased Internet restrictions that were put in place by the country's government today in anticipation of protests this weekend.

Antigovernment protests are reportedly planned for Saturday--the 33rd anniversary of the Islamic revolution that toppled the Shah. In response, the government has blocked access to Web-based e-mail services such as Gmail and social networks like Facebook. Officials have also, reports Forbes' Andy Greenberg, cut Web traffic that takes advantage of the kind of encryption used by secure e-mail services and social networks.

That's where U.S.-based Tor comes … Read more

Iran cuts off Internet access

Iran has cut off access to the Internet, leaving millions of people without access to e-mail and social networks.

An individual inside the country confirmed this morning that Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo email are no longer available. Ditto for Facebook. So far, the government has not made any announcement about the service interruption.

But cyber-sophisticated Iranians are still able to circumvent the government by using proxy servers over VPN connections.

"The interesting thing is that when asked, they deny the fact that all these services are all blocked," an Iranian contacted by CNET said. This individual asked to … Read more

Iran to ban Samsung over explosive Israeli cable ad?

I wish to report an international incident between Israel and Iran. And, um, South Korea.

For it seems that a TV commercial for HOT, an Israeli cable TV company, has created excessive heat beneath Iranian collars.

The commercial, you see, features three Israeli comedians dressed as women who bump into a Mossad agent, who happens to be hanging around in the vicinity of the Iranian nuclear facility in Isfahan.

He's a fan of theirs and he's actually watching one of their shows on his Samsung tablet.

So you remember that these three men dressed as women are comedians? … Read more