The Technology Keeping Information Flowing in Iran

Death Metal writes "Iranians seeking to share videos and other eyewitness accounts of the demonstrations that have roiled their country since disputed elections two weeks ago are using an Internet encryption program originally developed by and for the US Navy. Designed a decade ago to secure Internet communications between US ships at sea, The Onion Router, or TOR, has become one of the most important proxies in Iran for gaining access to Web sites such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook." A related story was submitted anonymously about the efforts of hactivists to keep the information flowing inside the data-locked nation.

Comments

All this time...

[fprintf]

Sheesh, all this time folks were talking about TOR I thought they were being lazy and shortening Torrent. I learn something new every day!

Hmmm

[Anonymous Coward]

You almost have to wonder if this scares the crap out of the powers that be. That something they created could, in theory, be something that fuels their eventual downfall, (assuming things ever got really bad....)

Accessing a TOR server is enough to get killed?

[viraltus]

I mean, perhaps they don't even care what are you saying, just that you try to hide it... How can you access a Tor network without them knowing? With another Tor network?

Zmodem?

[localman57]

There seems to be all of this press about how people are getting information out using the internet. But back in the early 90's, before I had access to the internet, my friends and I used to transfer information and files from one place to another using two modems connected via a plain old telephone line, sending files back and forth using Zmodem protocol. Is this technique still being used? I'm picturing someone using an acoustic coupler on a pay phone to send small cellphone videos out of Iran to a friendly party...

Re:Selective Values

[DNS-and-BIND]

Successful revolutions have three phases. First, a strategically located single or limited segment of society begins vocally to express resentment, asserting itself in the streets of a major city, usually the capital. This segment is joined by other segments in the city and by segments elsewhere as the demonstration spreads to other cities and becomes more assertive, disruptive and potentially violent. As resistance to the regime spreads, the regime deploys its military and security forces. These forces, drawn from resisting social segments and isolated from the rest of society, turn on the regime, and stop following the regime's orders. This is what happened to the Shah of Iran in 1979; it is also what happened in Russia in 1917 or in Romania in 1989.

Revolutions fail when no one joins the initial segment, meaning the initial demonstrators are the ones who find themselves socially isolated. When the demonstrations do not spread to other cities, the demonstrations either peter out or the regime brings in the security and military forces -- who remain loyal to the regime and frequently personally hostile to the demonstrators -- and use force to suppress the rising to the extent necessary. This is what happened in Tiananmen Square in China: The students who rose up were not joined by others. Military forces who were not only loyal to the regime but hostile to the students were brought in, and the students were crushed.

This is also what happened in Iran this week. The global media, obsessively focused on the initial demonstrators -- who were supporters of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's opponents -- failed to notice that while large, the demonstrations primarily consisted of the same type of people demonstrating. Amid the breathless reporting on the demonstrations, reporters failed to notice that the uprising was not spreading to other classes and to other areas. In constantly interviewing English-speaking demonstrators, they failed to note just how many of the demonstrators spoke English and had smartphones. The media thus did not recognize these as the signs of a failing revolution.

Later, when Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spoke Friday and called out the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, they failed to understand that the troops -- definitely not drawn from what we might call the "Twittering classes," would remain loyal to the regime for ideological and social reasons. The troops had about as much sympathy for the demonstrators as a small-town boy from Alabama might have for a Harvard postdoc. Failing to understand the social tensions in Iran, the reporters deluded themselves into thinking they were witnessing a general uprising. But this was not St. Petersburg in 1917 or Bucharest in 1989 -- it was Tiananmen Square.

Re:Government setting up TOR nodes?

[rotide]

You contradict yourself.

"Trouble hosting honest elections" isn't an accident and it isn't due to incompetence, it is due to the desire and ability to rig the system to win.

If they can do that, what makes you think they can't set up TOR nodes? (potential infrastructure limitations aside).

But don't think for a moment that a government that is out to win at any cost won't do whatever it takes to quash those that attempt to stand up to them. Also don't believe for a moment that they can't fund/hire or already have the technology and know how to setup simple nodes. It isn't too far of a stretch to believe they already have talented IT folk on their payroll.

Long story short, they aren't in power because they are dumb.

Re:The Grotesquely Ugly Truth

[ArcherB]

While I agree with a lot of what you have to say, I have to ask, do you think the people in N. Korea are happy with their lot in life?