Iran began testing the national Internet

The Iranian authorities began testing their Internet. If necessary, it will be easier to isolate users from the global Internet, experts say. Today there are 5,000,000 URLs locked.

Iran has entered the testing the Internet national project, also known as "Halal Internet"." It was reported by the Tehran authorities. The first step, according to the minister of information and communication technologies Iran Reza Tagipur, began on September 21 in 29 of 31 provinces. All government agencies connected to the state inner computer network without connection to the global Internet. By March 2013, the second step of the project, a "national Internet" that is supposed to be available to all Iranian universities, as well as to ordinary citizens, writes BFM.ru.

Whether the plan is possible
The Iranian Government has stressed that "national Internet" must co-exist with the global Internet, but the transfer of data within the national network will be faster and more reliable. The Tehran authorities deny the intention to isolate the Iranian Internet users from the rest of the world, in which many foreign observers suspect the Iranian government. "Isolation of the world's Internet will impose sanctions on Iran for themselves. It would be illogical," - said former Minister Mohammad Soleimani in an interview with the Iranian student news agency ISNA.

"I do not think that the Iranian government has necessary resources to implement such a complex project as a long-term and complete isolation of the Internet and turn it into an intranet," - said user Ali in the interview with DW Tehran Internet. Because of strict sanctions adopted by the international community against Iran, Tehran will be difficult to acquire appropriate software, said Ali. At the same time, he acknowledged that the Iranian leadership is concerned about the plans.

In turn, a London Iranian online activist Amin Sabet said: «Iran’s national Internet does not have the exact data. I do not believe in the fact that the Iranian government has the necessary infrastructure to create a national Internet or in the ability to close the World Wide Web access for users of this country. «However, the State is fully capable of quickly interring  in the work of the Internet and disabling certain pages, as happened with the services of YouTube and Gmail American company Google, Sabet said.

Following the model of China and Myanmar

In July 2012 the Iranian minister of information and communication technologies Tagipur Reza said that "for the 95% of the use of the Internet in Iran the international access is not required."

Representatives of the Tehran government insist that "Halal Internet" is the best way to "protect the religious and national values" of the country. However, experts are still critical about Iranian project "National Internet".

Member of the organization "Reporters without Borders" Reza Moeini believes that the Iranian project is not the same as Chinese "Golden Shield" (known as the "Great Chinese firewall"), which for today is considered to be the most developed system of state Internet censorship. There's a military dictatorship responded to her unwanted information by disabling the Web or decrease the speed of Internet connection. "According to Iranian authorities the main purpose is to leave access to the global Internet only for industry and the banking sector, and close it for normal users," - says Moeini.

One of the reasons that Tehran wants to turn off the computer from the state of the global Internet is quite understandable: the fear of cyber-attacks. Thus, in May 2012, a large number of office and business computers were affected by the virus Iran Flame - according to experts, the most dangerous in the world at the moment. Earlier Iranian computers attacked another virus - Stuxnet.

E-mail as a risk factor
After the "National Internet" started in government appeared the first information about what it is like. "This is an intranet, which is much faster than normal Internet, but without the access to e-mail and those foreign sites that are allowed by the Government," - told DW young Iranian Negara.

According to experts Iran blocked about five million Web addresses, including such well-known as Facebook. However, many users circumvent the ban by using proxy servers and network access VPN. This way you can check your mail and, for example, Gmail. But these people have  a "great risk" because there is evidence that some of the sites that offer services VPN, connected with the Iranian intelligence services.

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U.S. prepares for cyber armament race

The following month, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will meet with contractors who would like to offer a "revolutionary technology" of cyber war. Experts are worrying that this practice will unleash a global race "computer arms". On this background, Iran creates "halal" Internet, and China has "Golden Shield". But Russia has not proposed any countermeasures yet.

U.S. prepares for cyber war "Plan X". In the next five years they will spend $ 110 million to create the technology that develops a "high-tech" worm, futuristic malicious software with ultra-new monitoring tools, as well as a huge visual map for cyber war. To discuss the ambitious project government officials and contractors will be attract in a middle of October, there will be a seminar about the information technology innovation.

New York Times expert call this step "a turning point". He believes that it will take a lot of time, because 12 from the 15 largest armies in the world have each cyber program. "If we are talking openly about offensive nuclear and other media, why not just talk about cyber resources?" - Said James Lewis from the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. Now it is about to "lift the veil", to demonstrate the importance Washington attaches "future wars", and set its own rules on the cyber fight. However, the director of the Association of Arms Control Daryl Kimball warned: this may cause other countries to join the race cyber resources. They determine that the Pentagon wants to unleash a cyber-war, and therefore created a "Plan X".

In fact, this process has already started, for example, in the confrontation with Iran. The other day Tehran announced it was developing new protection in the event of cyber-warfare, which, according to the military, is "more dangerous than a real war." The U.S. and Israel have tried to disable Iran's nuclear facilities by the worm Stuxnet, and, according to some analysts, as opposed to the possibility air bombing on this path is a reachable perfect result. To protect them, Tehran, for example, is developing a national Internet, which has been nicknamed "halal". There are reports that its first step was launched in government departments on September 21. By the beginning of 2013 all the Iranian universities will be connected to the Internet. And in light of the appearance of anti-Islamic film "Innocent of Muslims" Tehran has blocked access to the resources of Google and Gmail, not to mention the fact that about 5 million sites (including such popular in the West, social networks like Twitter and Facebook) in Iran have been closed for a long time (He ranks fourth in the world for censorship). The decision to get out of the World Wide Web Iranians among others justify the need to protect the "religious and national values", they may also be undermining cyber-war stage.

China chose a similar path. In a country where the population has long been put into "cyber-war" position, information is filtered by a censorship mechanism called "Golden Shield," also known as "The Great fire-wall." Despite the coverage rates for the Internet (less than 40% in China, 78% in the U.S. and 82% in the UK) and the international status of English, due to the huge population China breaks first. According to the most recent forecasts, by 2015, Chinese online English surpasses the number of users (in May 2011, the ratio was 565 to 510 million people, or 27 and 24% of the network).

Thus, during the "Arab" scenarios and "who emerged from the social networks," the Iranians and the Chinese take into account the political cyber-war factor. Now try to understand the problem in Russia. Thus, the report "Runet today," prepared by the Civil Society Fund, shows the potential role of western resources during elections in the years 2016-2018. It turned out that the destabilization of society technologies that were used in the Middle East, has already been "tested" on the Russians and the main instruments were the Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. It's about sending invitations to the opposition campaign on social networks, mass purchase of entertainment communities and their transformation into a political protest, political spam mailing, the document says.

The fact that five of the twenty most popular sites Runet in origin not Russian (it's Google, YouTube, Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter) caused anxiety and therefore, "while maintaining the trend a few years may be a situation where a large Runet part will be controlled by foreign service. " Considerable importance is the fact that foreign companies are actively "crushes under a" domestic giants Runet by investing in relevant concerns. For example, the search engine "Yandex" has been registered in the Netherlands.

What will be the domestic response to cyber threats, so subtly bordering on civil liberties, is unclear. According to the President of the Civil Society Fund Konstantin Kostin, we "ascertain fairly obvious trends, and in any case do not call anyone to any action.

I hope that the actions will be positive. "

Americans want to make a revolution in the technology of cyberwar.



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Internet censorship around the world

In fact, anyone can buy a cheap proxy server subnet in the U.S. and Europe, as well as in other countries, and use it to their advantage. A feature of such servers is their anonymity.

Internet censorship is hiding under the name of "Internet filters", " parental control" or "safe search".
Firstly it appeared for the safety from the web supported parents, then censorship became political. 

Ø The worldwide filtering. Powerful filtering performs public contracts. It blocks any sites with unwanted information, particularly in foreign languages. Internet police starts from the moment you enter text in the search box. It blocked even the world-famous encyclopedia «Wikipedia» and the search engine "Google ". This filtering closes news sites and email, creates own protocol of the Network of Violation of the law involves criminal liability. Such a system operates in China, Iran, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan, Syria, Vietnam, North Korea and Cuba. 

Ø A significant level of filtering. Filter does not work with sites, which undermine national governments, promote pornography, drugs, gambling, religious causing harm. These are the rules of the Internet in Saudi Arabia, UAE, South Korea, Oman, Sudan and Yemen. 

Ø The nominal level of filtering. Filtering technologies are applied at the level of institutions (schools, libraries). They can block parts of the country, closed sites, inciting inter-ethnic strife. The system has its own lists of banned sites. This is how the Internet in the United States, France, Germany, Great Britain. 

Ø Indirect filtering. Entering time attack on the site on national holidays and elections. Attack may be organized by hackers from anywhere in the world. This scheme is typical for Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Israel, Egypt and Palestine.

It is hard to say whether the censorship is a public interest, or prohibits civil liberties. Most analysts find it difficult to choose a position. However, in the 25 countries we can notice the rise of political and social censorship. Perhaps this will increase, as studies, conducted by leading universities in the U.S., covered only 40 states. 22 countries signed an intergovernmental agreement on combating counterfeit trade. Battle for copyright fundamentally changes the position of the Internet. Every country on the pretext of protecting their traditions makes the laws impact on Internet resources. Civil society forms an organization fighting for freedom of access to information Confrontation for independent Internet.
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