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Comments on news posted 2012-11-29 11:28:03: As the country's bloody civil war continues, Syria has pulled the plug on the Internet completely. ..

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FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

1 edit

FFH5

Premium Member

More info on Syria at this link

»allthingsd.com/20121129/ ··· nternet/

More technically, what happened was that within the global routing table, all 84 blocks of IP addresses assigned to Syria have gone unreachable. That means that Internet traffic destined for that country is going undelivered, and also that traffic coming from within it cannot get out to the world.

People on Twitter are starting to notice. And hashtag #SyriaBlackout is showing up:
»twitter.com/search?q=%23 ··· Blackout

The Associated Press (via the Seattle Times) has a report citing Syrian activists saying that the government has cut off Internet and wireless phone connections in and around several neighborhoods of the capital city of Damascus. There have been some clashes there between government forces and the rebels.

Reuters is reporting that there has been some heavy fighting along a road leading to Damascus International Airport, southeast of the city. The road has been closed, and Dubai-based Emirates Airlines has suspended flights in and out of there for now.




With the cutoff of the Internet, fighting around Damascus has intensified as Syria is preparing to cleanse the capital of rebels.
»www.reuters.com/article/ ··· 20121129

A Syrian security source told Reuters on condition of anonymity that the army had started a "cleansing operation" in the capital to confront rebel advances.

Elsewhere in Damascus, warplanes bombed Kafr Souseh and Daraya, two neighborhoods that fringe the center of the city where rebels have managed to hide out and ambush army units, according to opposition activists.

"On the outskirts of Damascus, there are mortars and more attacks. The regime is thinking of protecting itself ... with checkpoints in the next few days ... (It) seems the regime is preparing for major battle on Damascus."

Kamus
join:2011-01-27
El Paso, TX

2 recommendations

Kamus

Member

We have to take the internet from the hands of incumbents.

This is only possible because all it takes is a simple phone call to your countries telcos/cable providers.

It's not that hard to shut down the internet when there's only 1-2 providers to choose from in most places in the world.

On a related topic:
I fear this is all for nothing for the people of Syria. Because even if they were to win, they would most likely go on the same path of Iran and Egypt. Where they trade a Dictatorship for a Theocracy, ending up with a worse government than they had.

I think one of the biggest problems there is how Islam is a Government first and a religion second. As long as they / we don't admit that they need to separate church from state, real progress can't be made.

n2jtx
join:2001-01-13
Glen Head, NY

1 recommendation

n2jtx

Member

said by Kamus:

On a related topic:
I fear this is all for nothing for the people of Syria. Because even if they were to win, they would most likely go on the same path of Iran and Egypt. Where they trade a Dictatorship for a Theocracy, ending up with a worse government than they had.

I think one of the biggest problems there is how Islam is a Government first and a religion second. As long as they / we don't admit that they need to separate church from state, real progress can't be made.

I could not agree more. I am thankful that we are not over there sacrificing our soldiers in order to "free" them. At which point they would turn around and put a brutal theocratic government in place. It is up to them to sort it all out. I tend to believe that the more lives a revolution sacrifices, the less willing the people will be to give up their hard fought freedoms once they prevail. If a foreign power comes in and "gives" them their freedom, there is no cost to them to give it all up.

jjoshua
Premium Member
join:2001-06-01
Scotch Plains, NJ

jjoshua

Premium Member

The US government wants the same thing

When the US government asks for this same power, maybe some people will point the finger at this story.

cdru
Go Colts
MVM
join:2003-05-14
Fort Wayne, IN

1 recommendation

cdru to Kamus

MVM

to Kamus

Re: We have to take the internet from the hands of incumbents.

said by Kamus:

This is only possible because all it takes is a simple phone call to your countries telcos/cable providers.

It's not that hard to shut down the internet when there's only 1-2 providers to choose from in most places in the world.

So, who exactly will run all the backbones? The government...they're the ones that are trying to shut it down. Some non-government organization? They have no authority. The network geeks? They have the same issue as a NGO?

In all conflicts, those that have the guns usually get what they want from those that do not. If the government wants to shut down the internet, it's going to shut down the internet. Its harder to shut it down when you have multiple transnational backbones, but just takes more guys with guns or threats of guns.
ackman
join:2000-10-04
Atlanta, GA

ackman

Member

This is bad

How will they finish their online Christmas shopping?
Kearnstd
Space Elf
Premium Member
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ

Kearnstd to FFH5

Premium Member

to FFH5

Re: More info on Syria at this link

this is a two fold purpose, they want to make sure the rebels have a harder time communicating. But this also makes it more challenging for news outlets to get their information out. Limiting them to easy to jam satellite links. After all if the current government wants to bomb without discretion and knows they will kill hundreds of civilians you do not want it happening live to the western world on the BBC.
moonpuppy (banned)
join:2000-08-21
Glen Burnie, MD

moonpuppy (banned) to FFH5

Member

to FFH5
Here we go again:

»www.cbsnews.com/video/wa ··· =678229n
lemonade1
join:2003-12-13
Los Angeles, CA

lemonade1

Member

84?

their country use only 84 ip ?

Robert
Premium Member
join:2001-08-25
Miami, FL

Robert

Premium Member

said by lemonade1:

their country use only 84 ip ?

84 blocks of IP addresses.

MerinX
Crunching for Cures
Premium Member
join:2011-02-03

MerinX

Premium Member

FSA=Foreign backed Terrorists

»www.youtube.com/watch?v= ··· s1Jfb-gs

polbox
join:2002-05-28
Mississauga, ON

polbox

Member

They're protecting their national interests. Just like how USA vetoes anything about Israel.

capecoddah
join:2005-03-18
Yarmouth Port, MA

capecoddah to MerinX

Member

to MerinX
And the RT commenters show up.

According to them, the last time Syria has an internet crash, Israel did it.

»rt.com/news/syria-nation ··· out-908/

Industrial-strength derp going on there.

polbox
join:2002-05-28
Mississauga, ON

polbox

Member

good for them

They're protecting their national interests. Just like how USA vetoes anything about Israel.
Expand your moderator at work
Chubbysumo
join:2009-12-01
Duluth, MN
Ubee E31U2V1
(Software) pfSense
Netgear WNR3500L

Chubbysumo to Kearnstd

Member

to Kearnstd

Re: More info on Syria at this link

said by Kearnstd:

this is a two fold purpose, they want to make sure the rebels have a harder time communicating. But this also makes it more challenging for news outlets to get their information out. Limiting them to easy to jam satellite links. After all if the current government wants to bomb without discretion and knows they will kill hundreds of civilians you do not want it happening live to the western world on the BBC.

Public discontent and government dislike are the best two anti-war tools in existence, and since they will be killing civillains, and rebels, likely without discretion, they do not want that publicized at all to the outside world, since its highly disagreeable to kill civilians and non-involved and would likely get other countries to act to stop the bloodshed and displace an overly aggressive government that is willing to kill its own constituents who they are supposed to represent. When a governement starts killing the people its supposed to represent, you know that the people running the government no longer care about anything except their own power. How long before those in the government backed military start having their own family members killed and start joining the rebels because of indiscriminant bombings?
Chubbysumo

Chubbysumo to cdru

Member

to cdru

Re: We have to take the internet from the hands of incumbents.

said by cdru:

Its harder to shut it down when you have multiple transnational backbones, but just takes more guys with guns or threats of guns.

All it takes is a few guys with axes and the entire country can be severed from any backbone. even here in the USA, there is a public map of where trans-oceanic pipes come in and leave, and where they cross land borders as well, meaning, all it would take for many countries to cut themselves from the internet is a well coordinated assault on those publicly published backbones/interconnects. Hell, there are about 50 on the US borders, so, cutting the USA off from world access could be as easy as taking about 100 people and having them cut and chop all fiber undersea cables. even if you got 30 of the 50, the other 20 would be so clogged that anything outside the USA would become nearly unreachable.
Killersaurus
join:2012-09-17

1 recommendation

Killersaurus

Member

SyrianGirl would be hot

If her soul wasn't so blackened with hate.

Snakeoil
Ignore Button. The coward's feature.
Premium Member
join:2000-08-05
united state

Snakeoil to jjoshua

Premium Member

to jjoshua

Re: The US government wants the same thing

They have asked for this power.

»www.cbsnews.com/8301-501 ··· 465.html
quote:
Renewed Push to Give Obama an Internet "Kill Switch"

A controversial bill handing President Obama power over privately owned computer systems during a "national cyberemergency," and prohibiting any review by the court system, will return this year.

Internet companies should not be alarmed by the legislation, 1first introduced last summer by Sens. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), a Senate aide said last week. Lieberman, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, is chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

"We're not trying to mandate any requirements for the entire Internet, the entire Internet backbone," 2said Brandon Milhorn, Republican staff director and counsel for the committee.

Instead, Milhorn said at a conference in Washington, D.C., the point of the proposal is to assert governmental control only over those "crucial components that form our nation's critical infrastructure."

1]Isn't that what they always say?
2]Give them a little, they'll take a lot or give them an inch, they'll take a mile. Sure they only want control over a few "crucial components".
They'd never abuse that, would they?
Snakeoil

Snakeoil to MerinX

Premium Member

to MerinX

Re: FSA=Foreign backed Terrorists

I often wondered how many insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan were aided by Syria and Pakistan. Sure Pakistan is/was/sorta our ally, but considering they seemed to be hiding Osama, who knows.

I don't think we need to enter another war, but at the same time, I strongly doubt Syria is all that innocent.
FrontirCynic
join:2006-10-25
Long Beach, CA

FrontirCynic

Member

Less info always bad

The internets ("a series of tubes") has changed the world. But as people point out it is very vulnerable to thugs. Imagine if you will if google went off line. Or twitter or FB. The US economy would stop. I call on all hackers, Pirate bay types along with Anonymous to help the Syrian rebels out. Or maybe Best Buy geek squad will step up lol

jester121
Premium Member
join:2003-08-09
Lake Zurich, IL

jester121

Premium Member

said by FrontirCynic:

I call on all hackers, Pirate bay types along with Anonymous to help the Syrian rebels out. Or maybe Best Buy geek squad will step up lol

Errr.... how exactly? By traveling into a war zone and plugging the cables back into the ports? Hackers can't do much with "destination unreachable".
moonpuppy (banned)
join:2000-08-21
Glen Burnie, MD

moonpuppy (banned) to Chubbysumo

Member

to Chubbysumo

Re: We have to take the internet from the hands of incumbents.

said by Chubbysumo:

All it takes is a few guys with axes and the entire country can be severed from any backbone. even here in the USA, there is a public map of where trans-oceanic pipes come in and leave, and where they cross land borders as well, meaning, all it would take for many countries to cut themselves from the internet is a well coordinated assault on those publicly published backbones/interconnects. Hell, there are about 50 on the US borders, so, cutting the USA off from world access could be as easy as taking about 100 people and having them cut and chop all fiber undersea cables. even if you got 30 of the 50, the other 20 would be so clogged that anything outside the USA would become nearly unreachable.

Utter nonsense.

There are enough backups and satellite uplinks that while the performance might be degraded, we would have some connectivity. As for cutting all 50 connections at one time, that would have to involve one big effort with way too many people.

Bill Neilson
Premium Member
join:2009-07-08
Alexandria, VA

Bill Neilson to Snakeoil

Premium Member

to Snakeoil

Re: The US government wants the same thing

Funny how the same people who loved this type of invasion of privacy during 2000-2008 suddenly are outraged at the other party's President wanting it.

Just a darn coincidence I guess....

Snakeoil
Ignore Button. The coward's feature.
Premium Member
join:2000-08-05
united state

Snakeoil

Premium Member

I didn't like it when the Patriot act was passed either.

ArrayList
DevOps
Premium Member
join:2005-03-19
Mullica Hill, NJ

ArrayList to Killersaurus

Premium Member

to Killersaurus

Re: SyrianGirl would be hot

at least she has a soul.
ArrayList

ArrayList to jester121

Premium Member

to jester121

Re: Less info always bad

anons can do far more damage on the ground than they can online.

jester121
Premium Member
join:2003-08-09
Lake Zurich, IL

jester121

Premium Member

Most of them have allergies, hence sticking close to their mom's basements.

ArrayList
DevOps
Premium Member
join:2005-03-19
Mullica Hill, NJ

ArrayList

Premium Member

and thanks for playing. glad you let your ignorance flag fly true.
jc10098
join:2002-04-10

jc10098 to Kamus

Member

to Kamus

Re: We have to take the internet from the hands of incumbents.

Sort of like those Christian Values masked in public policy throughout the United States for the betterment of all? We're no less a theocracy. Churches want abortion to end. The ban on gay marriage is a religious argument. Prohibition was a Religious Movement. The saying of a prayer before our elected officials meet. Ten Commandments in Court Systems.

Honestly, religion has ABSOLUTELY NO PLACE in politics. Govern by the law and not off some self contrived book.
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