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Dan Swinhoe (Middle East)- Iran vs. The Internet

Posted b y Company IDG Connect 10/02/2012

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Terrific b log!

Last week Google and Gmail were b locked in Iran. Nothing too surprising there, you might say. Iran is known for b locking sites it doesn't approve of. And while you might b e right, this is different. Iran isn't just planning on b locking Google, it's planning to b lock the whole Internet. No one quite knows how Iranternet' will work. But what is clear is the government plan to prevent the country's 36,500,000 Internet users from accessing the World Wide Web and instead direct them to its own domestic version.According to a minister within the country, the move is in response to various things; cyb er-attacks, the US controlling the internet, and portions of cyb erspace b eing used for espionage. Key ministries and state b odies have already moved off the WWW, according to the Telegraph, and the rest of the populace is expected to follow. According to Iranian media, the domestic system would b e fully implemented b y March 2013 b ut it was not clear whether access to the glob al Internet would b e cut once the Iranian system is rolled out. Already one of the b iggest internet filters in the world, the government b locks its citizens from accessing any sites it deems offensive or criminal. Which is a lot. Faceb ook, Twitter, Flickr and Youtub e have b een b anned for a while now; even web sites and b logs b elonging to supporters of President Ahmadinejad have b een on occasion. Never particularly fond of the Internet, Iran is notorious for its censorship of the web . The Freedom On The Net report for 2012 not only lab elled Iran as not free' b ut also gave it the highest score, making it the least free country on the Internet. Reporters Without Borders goes into details of what it describ es as crackdowns on many of its netizens: "Iranians who cannot, or dare not, circumvent the censors' filtering system are doomed to use a regime-approved version of the Web , meaning one "cleansed" of any political, social and religious criticism. The national Internet has b een a reality for years now, so the announcement of its launching primarily stems from political and nationalist motives." The Iranian government has b een investing heavily in hacking expertise and online propaganda, going as far as recruiting "hacking groups to fight "Western cultural influences" and online dissidents as well as promoting Iranian foreign policy ob jectives." Also expected to launch is a native national search engine, "Ya Haq", which will undoub tedly heavily filter search results.The internet can b e an extreme and extremely lib eral sphere, and it's no surprise a country notorious for its repulsion of outside influence would b e seeking new ways to try and limit access to doesn't approve of. There's also the question of whether Tehran could really afford to cut off the internet. Already under financial pressure due to various sanctions, b usiness is now dependent on b eing ab le to communicate worldwide. And it's unlikely that the government needs reminding that five days with no Internet cost Egypt "At least $90 million". Imagine what it would cost indefinitely. However, there may less nefarious, b ut no less political, reasons for Iran's choice to move to its own domestic internet. Aside from the general virus rate in the Middle East b eing higher than large parts of the world, the increasing numb er of state-b acked attacks on the country has b een increasing steadily in the past couple of years. FLAME, Stuxnet and Duqu have all hit various systems in Iran, and with these malicious viruses attacking

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important infrastructure it's easy to understand the desire to retreat. There's also b een Gauss, Madi and even one that played "Thunderstruck" b y AC/DC at a Nuclear power station. Despite calls for governments to stop, many predict an escalation of these cyb er-attacks. India has recently given the go ahead to get involved with state-sponsored attacks and experts b elieve many more countries have similar programs of their own. Iran is b y no means innocent in the hacking stakes. In 2010, Eb rahim Jab b ari, a commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps declared that the IRGC had the world's second-largest cyb er army at its disposal. In March, Iran was accused of launching an attack on the BBC's Persian service, and very recently attacks against JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp were attrib uted to Iran, something which Tehran denies. As it gets more difficult to tell the difference b etween government-b acked and individualmade malware, the chances of finger-pointing after an attack are likely and will only cause more glob al tension. It's important to note the importance of the internet though; that instead of simply hitting a killswitch the way the Egyptian government did during their uprisings, the government recognised how b ig a part it plays in day-to-day life for people, organizations and the state. Tensions b etween Iran and the West are unlikely to calm down soon. While Iranternet' may only b e a side-effect, it's indicative of the greater political prob lems the country is facing, and linked to the shifting role of the internet as a weapon and near-constant source of prob lems and crime. But if the government pulls this idea off, might this start a chain reaction of isolated internet paranoia? By Dan Swinhow, Editorial, Assistant, IDG Connect

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