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Saturday, 11 February 2012 08:27

Iran continues to block sites on the Internet

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censorship-InternetAs we told you yesterday the government in Iran is working very hard to block connections to social networks and even email services. They have gone so far as to block the use of the SSL and TLS protocols  (Secure Socket Layer and Transport Layer Security) which will block most email services with the exception of basic IMAP and POP3 mail. As of late last night it appears that they have moved into a second phase of restriction. We are hearing that they are now blocking certain sties by IP and domain name.

The new round of blocks some as the 33rd anniversary of the Islamic revolution is just around the corner. The Government fears political protests and seeing the same thing happen in Iran that happened in Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries over the last year. To prevent the use of email and social networking sites form aiding any potential protesters they are choosing to simply block them.

However, as we had said in the past, the tighter you grip something the more likely it is to slip out between your fingers. We have already heard that some in Iran are using Proxy services and VPN tunnels to get through the firewalls and restrictions in place. The TOR project is working on a Proxy service that will allow you to hide encrypted and proxied information in plain sight.

There are dangers for people that by-pass the rules though. Iran has arrested and even executed people for engaging in what they call “spreading corruption”.

If things like this sound frightening, just think that the US Government wanted to put a system just like this in place; all at the urgings of corporations, but the end result could be the same.

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Read 2298 times Last modified on Saturday, 11 February 2012 08:37
Sean Kalinich

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