Iran’s internet goes offline for hours amid claims of ‘enemy abuse’

The government of Iran appears to have shut down the internet within its borders, perhaps in response to Israel-linked cyberattacks. Internet watchers at CloudFlare and NetBlocks both report that internet traffic in Iran dropped precipitously late on Wednesday and has remained near zero since. Cloudflare cited a Telegram post …

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone know a VPN to allow people in Iran to connect out?

Obviously not when it's switched off!

My partner's family are Iranian (and want the regime gone). She is desperate to be able to keep in touch with them as much as possible to know they are safe.

[Paul Crawford]

Re: Anyone know a VPN to allow people in Iran to connect out?

Until recently most of the usual suspects that get top ratings on VPN comparison sites seems to be popular/work in Iran. That surged recently as Iranians wanted to access the wider world:

https://uk.pcmag.com/vpn/158639/vpn-use-in-iran-spikes-700-amid-internet-restrictions

Most likely shutting down internet access is to control what the population hears. AirVPN at least is one that allows 'advanced options' for different port numbers to be used, and also for TCP/IP mode on 443, etc, to look more like web traffic and so avoid blocking (usually UDP is better as you don't want flow-control applied both inside and outside of the tunnel as it bogs things down).

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Anyone know a VPN to allow people in Iran to connect out?

Thanks, I'll pass that on.

[best-heygman]

Re: Anyone know a VPN to allow people in Iran to connect out?

TOR Browser with Snowflake selected as Bridge should work.

After the attacks the connections to my Snowflake proxy from Iran skyrocketed.

(However, in the last two days or so, when I occasionally look at the current connections, Iran is gone completely, so it looks to me like Iran really cut off the Internet as said in the article...)

[best-heygman]

Re: Anyone know a VPN to allow people in Iran to connect out?

Update: Looks like they have internet again.

Also, I can confirm that Tor with Snowflake still works from Iran. At least there is traffic from / to Iran.

[I ain't Spartacus]

6-of-1-half-a-dozen of the other

Iran closing down, or severely restricting the internet is not a new thing. They've also shut down mobile networks and internet coverage in places where there were demonstrations. It's possible Israel have managed to break into Whatsapp, it's more likely the regime don't want people being able to use encrypted messaging they don't control. It's what police states do.

On the other hand, Israel have widened their targetting. They bombed the national broadcaster, so maybe they want to target the regime's methods of communicating with people in order to make it harder to control the news.

The Iranian regime are very unpopular. But on the other hand, holding a revolution with airstrikes incoming from Israel and the threat of Trump joining in seems pretty unlikely. People are more worried about getting the supplies they need and not getting hit themselves.

Popular revolutions during wars tend to happen after years, when people have just had enough. If you're going to have an early change in power, in order to end the war, that's most likely to come from within the government itself - or from some powerful force within the regime, like the armed forces. In this case we're back to police state - while the Revolutionary Guard are powerful, they're there to protect the regime and keep everyone else in order. Of course if Israel can weaken them, then others might see an opportunity?

[Anonymous Coward]

when people have just had enough

Trust me, they have :-(

But you are right to say they are currently more worried about survival than regime change - though that may come once Israel backs off.

[I ain't Spartacus]

Re: when people have just had enough

I noticed the other day that Israel had bombed the HQ of Tehran's police force. As well as bombing Basij facilities and the Revolutionary Guard more generally.

I suspect saying the regime change thing out loud was stupid, as you're now associating anyone who rises up against the regime with Israel - who've just been bombing the country. Not so clever. But if it is your hope, then degrading the organisations that the government use to repress the people does make sense. I don't know a great deal about Iranian command and control, but they do seem quite centralised, given how slow they were to react to Israel's attack. Israel have got good at striking the leadership, it's a large part of how they crippled Hezbollah. The problem with killing all the leaders, is you don't leave yourself anyone to negotiate with afterwards - and even if you do, they don't have the credibility to make the deal you want anyway. Part of the problem with the PLO, is that they've not got anyone with the credibility that Arafat had, so even if an Isreali government that wanted peace could get elected, they'd have nobody to talk to.

I really hope the Iranian people can get some better leadership - with the minimum of bloodshed. But with Netenyahu, and possibly Trump, "on their side" - I'm not optimistic for their chances.

There's that old saying (supposedly Arabic), "my enemy's enemy is my friend". But sometimes your enemy's enemy is also your enemy. And to use another famous quote, with friends like Netenyahu and Trump, who needs enemies?

[James O'Shea]

Re: when people have just had enough

Maxim 29: "The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy, no more, no less": Schlock Mercenary.

[Tron]

If that happened in the UK...

...we would just assume it was our ISPs. My internet currently works for 90 seconds before falling over.

If the ISPs are blocking on state order or their backbone has been bombed by the Israelis, they would presumably need a discreet satellite connection. Probably why some governments demand a list of those with sat connections.

The alternative is a decentralised, ground-up ad hoc network, connecting devices as nodes and building up its own alt-DNS. You could do this in somewhere like Iran or NK to create an undernet, connecting systems whenever possible, without government control. Access points to the wider net would be by satellite or border hopping. It wouldn't be fast but you could get messages in and out. It's a good option for after a major quake. Ordinary mobile devices can use it quite easily. There are probably working versions out there as it is not a new concept.

[Jellied Eel]

Re: If that happened in the UK...

If the ISPs are blocking on state order or their backbone has been bombed by the Israelis, they would presumably need a discreet satellite connection. Probably why some governments demand a list of those with sat connections.

There are a limited number of cable routes in & out of Iran, so it's possible those cables have been damaged, or the landing stations and PoPs they utilise. Or Iran may have decided to shut down or restrict access to try and limit the spread of information or misinformation. Must be one of those interesting choices, like do you take down networks, if the objective is regime change, and isolating a country limits the options for psyops.

[StudeJeff]

Starlink?

According to one report there are about 20,000 Starlink terminals in Iran, and Starlink has turned on access.

It will be interesting to see what, if any, effect that has on events in the coming days, and what news we get via Starlink.

The days when a repressive regime could block it's citizens from being able to communicate with the rest of the world are over.

[Anonymous Coward]

Future shock

If WW3 develops and is conventional, there will be no Internet. Imagine what that means for supply chains! It'll be worse than German U-Boats in WW2. Meanwhile Mad Ed wants to build solar farms on productive farm land and get our power from others (as if that makes a difference to emissions!) which will be severed or they'll want to keep their power. Millions will starve in the UK and consequently law and order will dissappear. We need a government that works for us not a bunch of clowns that seem to front every major party. From Greens to Reform, Uniparty clowns.