Telecomix Releases 54GB of Syrian Censorship Logs

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Telecomix Releases 54GB of Syrian Censorship Logs

Posted by timothy on Wednesday October 5, 2011 @01:36AM from the like-cheese-logs-but-worse dept.

pafein writes "Hacktivist cluster Telecomix released 54 gigabytes of Syrian censorship log data. The anonymized log data was collected from seven of 15 Bluecoat SG-9000 HTTP proxies used by Syrian government telco and ISP STE. Preliminary analysis revealed such keywords as proxy and Israel were blocked. And of course, much porn. The data set provides a unique look at Internet censorship from the inside. Internauts who enjoy regexes and charts are invited to help make a pretty infographic. Telecomix's #opsyria has been fighting censorship and facilitating communications [note: French language link] in Syria for the past few weeks, providing TOR, VPNs and technical advice and support via IRC. They've also been providing DNS service for The Pirate Bay."

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Can't be right by ArcherB · 2011-10-05 01:41 · Score: 3, Insightful

Arab men don't look at/for porn. It is forbidden by the dominant religion over there.
Must be some sort of mistake... or an Israeli plot.

--
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
1. Re:Can't be right by Ynot_82 · 2011-10-05 01:45 · Score: 1
  
  So is violence (as with most religions)
  <barbossa>There're more what you'd call /guidelines/ than actual rules</barbossa>
2. Re:Can't be right by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-05 01:47 · Score: 0
  
  In the public they dont watch porn
  
  In private, its another story
  
  I would really want to check the logs/history of those administering the censorship...
3. Re:Can't be right by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-05 01:52 · Score: 0
  
  We have a turd in the punch bowl.
4. Re:Can't be right by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-05 02:07 · Score: 0
  
  So is alcohol, yet I've seen quite a few drunk arabs in my life.
  Prohibition doesn't mean people don't actually do it.
5. Re:Can't be right by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-05 02:21 · Score: 0
  
  Access logs from countries like India shows a correlation between Muslim population and amount of porn browsed. Doesn't say anything about who is doing the porn browsing though, nor does it establish causality.
6. Re:Can't be right by pixline · 2011-10-05 02:24 · Score: 1
  
  Arab men don't look at/for porn. It is forbidden by the dominant religion over there.
  Advice: feel free to say it, don't bet anything on it. It's like saying "not a single american drunk anything with alcohol in it during prohibition". FAIL.
7. Re:Can't be right by spottedkangaroo · 2011-10-05 02:34 · Score: 1
  
  Dunno much about islam, but the bible sends kindof a mixed message on violence.
  
  --
  Imagine if you weren't allowed to use roads because a bus company complained about your driving 3 times. --skunkpussy
8. Re:Can't be right by seyyah · 2011-10-05 02:36 · Score: 1
  
  Not everyone in Syria is Muslim. Not all those who are nominally Muslim actually practice the religion. And some of those who do practice still break the rules (alcohol, etc). Welcome to the real world.
9. Re:Can't be right by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-05 02:56 · Score: 0
  
  Arab men aren't supposed to have sex with other men. I, a man from European decent, can testify that that is utterly not true... Ah, the vacation fun to be had there!
10. Re:Can't be right by Inda · 2011-10-05 02:59 · Score: 1
  
  Must. Resist. Urge. To. Troll.
  
  --
  This post contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.
11. Re:Can't be right by Mathieu+Lu · 2011-10-05 03:03 · Score: 1
  
  Have you been to Syria? It's quite a complicated place, and has a fascinating history :)
  I was there last year, slightly before the uprisings started. While I did most of the usual backpacker routes (Damascus, Hamah, Aleppo, Palmyra), with the occasional getting lost, hitchhiking and crossing to/from Lebanon using odd routes), I met a lot of people who barely spoke English and just felt like communicating. I found people to be very open minded, proud of their culture, curious about others and somewhat indifferent about their incompetent government (as if it's that big brother who just keeps screwing up, until it reached a breaking point where they figured it's time to kick him out).
  https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Syria
  Generalizing about "arabs" is the same as those who generalize about "americans". Ex: americans are just a bunch of ignorant trigger-happy rednecks who don't realize that sexual abstinence has a high rate of failure (increases the risks of teen pregnancy and STD propagation). The US are capable of doing the best .. but also being irresponsible of doing the worst.
  (disclaimer: I am from Montreal, and from the current path we are on right now, it won't be long before we end up in the same ditch)
12. Re:Can't be right by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-05 03:08 · Score: 0
  
  Must. Resist. Urge. To. Troll.
  This! :)
13. Re:Can't be right by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-05 03:23 · Score: 0
  
  Per capita, Arab countries have the highest rates of sex slaves, prostitutes, and underground drinking. Other drugs are readily available but far less popular than drinking. In most of these countries, you can pick up the phone and have just about any preference in prostitute delivered to your door in minutes to hours, depending on your preference. This is why most Arab countries require women to be escorted. They say its to keep the women from fucking every random guy they meet but in reality, chances are high they'll be raped given enough unescorted time.
  Hypocrisy is best spell, 'A', 'r', 'a', 'b'.
  In Arab countries there is what they say and then there is what they do. It is a cultural imperative and deeply rooted in all aspects of their society.
14. Re:Can't be right by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-05 03:54 · Score: 0
  
  >somewhat indifferent about their incompetent government (as if it's that big brother who just keeps screwing up, until it reached a breaking point where they figured it's time to kick him out)
  Um, if your brother kills fifty people a day for more than three months and you only feel somewhat indifferent about it...
15. Re:Can't be right by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-05 04:03 · Score: 0
  
  In Arab countries there is what they say and then there is what they do. It is a cultural imperative and deeply rooted in all aspects of their society.
  Then until they resolve that contradiction, they deserve the hell that they are in.
16. Re:Can't be right by tqk · 2011-10-05 04:05 · Score: 1
  
  So is alcohol, yet I've seen quite a few drunk arabs in my life.
  That's just the "terrists" way of blending into the background, trying to look like us infidels.
  Based on that, the DHS can round up all the drunks and ship 'em all off to Gitmo. :-)
  
  --
  "Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit ..." -- Pink Floyd.
17. Re:Can't be right by suprcvic · 2011-10-05 04:23 · Score: 1
  
  My sarcasm sensors are going off big time. Thinking the parent should be modded funny, not insightful.
18. Re:Can't be right by Runaway1956 · 2011-10-05 04:34 · Score: 1
  
  That's part of that censorship deal. Big brother doesn't come home, and TELL YOU that he's done a hard day's work of killing people! You have to figure it out on your own. So, if you don't look at the blood tracked across the living room, you might think that it's just mud or something.
  
  --
  "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
19. Re:Can't be right by Ltap · 2011-10-05 04:43 · Score: 1
  
  You know, you don't need to use secure.wikimedia.org any more.
  
  A better link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syria.
  
  --
  Yet Another Tech Blog
  (but so much more, including game and movie reviews)
  http://yanteb.peasantoid.org
20. Re:Can't be right by chrb · 2011-10-05 05:10 · Score: 1
  
  Per capita, Arab countries have the highest rates of sex slaves, prostitutes, and underground drinking.
  Citation needed, because there's a lot of prostitution going on in the rest of the world. Hell, we even have web sites where prostitutes are listed and rated like any other product would be on Amazon or Ebay. As for underground drinking: half of British 11 to 15 year olds regularly drink alcohol. 75% of Russian teenagers regularly drink vodka. What are the figures for Arab countries?
  
  drugs are readily available but far less popular than drinking. In most of these countries, you can pick up the phone and have just about any preference in prostitute delivered to your door in minutes to hours
  So, just like non-Arab countries, then?
  
  In Arab countries there is what they say and then there is what they do. It is a cultural imperative and deeply rooted in all aspects of their society.
  Still not seeing how this is different to non-Arab countries? Politicians and the religious right tell us not to do drugs, and not to hire prostitutes, and yet both are easily available.
  
  Hypocrisy is best spell, 'A', 'r', 'a', 'b'.
  Because non-Arab populations have no hypocrites? No men of religion or politics who fail to live up to their own standards?
21. Re:Can't be right by chrb · 2011-10-05 05:14 · Score: 1
  
  Arab men don't look at/for porn. It is forbidden by the dominant religion over there.
  It is also forbidden by the dominant religion in the U.S.
  Religious people are often hypocrites...
22. Re:Can't be right by H0p313ss · 2011-10-05 05:24 · Score: 2
  
  Arab men don't look at/for porn. It is forbidden by the dominant religion over there.
  It is also forbidden by the dominant religion in the U.S.
  Religious people are often hypocrites...
  Hmmm.... you might be on to something there, there seems to be a pattern of behavior but I just can't figure it out....
  
  --
  XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
23. Re:Can't be right by oreiasecaman · 2011-10-05 05:34 · Score: 1
  
  Arab men don't look at/for porn. It is forbidden by the dominant religion over there.
  Lots of things are forbidden by most religions, yet anyone can see that they still happen anyway.
  
  --
  This is a UDP joke, I don't care if you get it or not...
24. Re:Can't be right by elewton · 2011-10-05 06:27 · Score: 1
  
  Don't worry. Islam is just as (IMHO more) barbaric than the Old and New Testaments.
  While we're posting biased but well sourced links: http://www.wikiislam.net/
  Posted AC to reduce the probability of my murder.
25. Re:Can't be right by elewton · 2011-10-05 06:29 · Score: 1
  
  FUUUUCK.
  Tired and forgot to anonymise. It's been nice knowing y'all.
26. Re:Can't be right by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-05 07:52 · Score: 0
  
  Your sarcasm detector needs calibration.
27. Re:Can't be right by tnnn · 2011-10-05 09:16 · Score: 1
  
  I wonder if modding up your comment would make me an accessory to murder... Anyway, good luck and get some sleep :)
28. Re:Can't be right by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-05 12:58 · Score: 0
  
  Statistically, you're more likely to get killed accused of being a terrorist than at the hands of one.
29. Re:Can't be right by neyla · 2011-10-05 19:08 · Score: 1
  
  Indeed. The tigther the "official" rules for behaviour, the more hypocrisy.
  Catholic priests aren't actually all celibate. Muslims don't all avoid alcohol. Jews don't all avoid pizza. Mormons don't all stick to ths missionary position, and wait until marriage with sex.
  They just lie about it. Because the official rules don't allow them to openly admit to being human, like the rest of us.
  To add insult to injury, they then go on to claim they're morally superior. Yet it's pretty hard to see how lying makes you superior to being truthful.
30. Re:Can't be right by tehcyder · 2011-10-05 21:30 · Score: 1
  
  Posted AC to reduce the probability of my murder
  Not sure if this is an impressive fail, or part of the joke...
  
  --
  To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
31. Re:Can't be right by tehcyder · 2011-10-05 21:35 · Score: 1
  
  Jews don't all avoid pizza
  I'm going out on a limb, but I don't think the word "pizza" appears anywhere in the Old Testament.
  
  --
  To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
32. Re:Can't be right by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-06 01:21 · Score: 0
  
  Meet the ragheaded bastards with a 12 gauge shotgun pointed in there face.
33. Re:Can't be right by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-06 03:49 · Score: 0
  
  Google survey finds mostly Muslim states seek access to sex-related websites (they rank 1, 2, 4, 5, 7 & 8 in the top 10).
  Iranians made the highest number of visits to "immoral sites" on Ashura Day.
  Pakistan ranked No. 1 in searches for "child sex," "animal sex," "rape sex," "camel sex," "dog sex," "rape video."
  http://www.wikiislam.net/wiki/Muslim_Statistics_(Pornography)
34. Re:Can't be right by RockDoctor · 2011-10-06 05:18 · Score: 1
  
  Jews don't all avoid pizza
  I'm going out on a limb, but I don't think the word "pizza" appears anywhere in the Old Testament.
  I'm not certain, but I think the GP's comment was some obscure reference to the myriad and varied (and probably self-inconsistent) dietary laws of the various Jewish sects. There's probably some rule against eating dairy and tomato in the same meal, which would make almost any formulation that fits "pizza" impossible.
  (By "Jewish" I include the various derivative sects such as Christianity and Islam. It's all barely-distinguishable shit. A curse on all their houses - when Northern Ireland have finished slaughtering themselves, can we use it as a compactor to throw the rest in in mutually murderous combinations so we can get the fuckers out of our way?)
  
  --
  Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
35. Re:Can't be right by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-06 10:34 · Score: 0
  
  Jews don't all avoid pizza
  I'm going out on a limb, but I don't think the word "pizza" appears anywhere in the Old Testament.
  I'm not certain, but I think the GP's comment was some obscure reference to the myriad and varied (and probably self-inconsistent) dietary laws of the various Jewish sects. There's probably some rule against eating dairy and tomato in the same meal, which would make almost any formulation that fits "pizza" impossible.
  Or could be going for the general no pork and dairy restriction... and of course the fact that it is not pizza without some kind of pork on it : ) (pepperoni, sausage, bacon... now I'm hungry).
36. Re:Can't be right by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-06 10:43 · Score: 0
  
  Hypocrisy is best spell, 'A', 'r', 'a', 'b'.
  In all fairness, it's also spelled 'h','u','m','a','n', unfortunately.
Infographic by mehrotra.akash · 2011-10-05 01:42 · Score: 1

"Internauts who enjoy regexes and charts are invited to help make a pretty infographic"

Has anyone made one yet?
1. Re:Infographic by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-05 01:44 · Score: 0
  
  If so, I want their internet connection. 54GB in six minutes exceeds the speed of Gigabit ethernet by over 20%.
2. Re:Infographic by KDEnut · 2011-10-05 01:59 · Score: 1
  
  But this is the internet and I want my shiny NOW! I'm going to forget about this in 5 min...
3. Re:Infographic by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-05 02:20 · Score: 0
  
  Well then you need to stop using words like "Internauts", "regexes", and "charts".
  Here, try this:
  New Beta of Crowd-Sourced Naughty Word Hunt v2.0! Now you and your friends can play together on the 'Net. Find as many naughty words as you can and let us know! We'll announce the winners on our blog!
p0rn by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-05 02:26 · Score: 0

It's a stupid thing to block. If you spend your time watching p0rn you're not into the streets protesting against your government.
1. Re:p0rn by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-05 02:39 · Score: 0
  
  If you spend your time watching p0rn you're not into the streets protesting against your government.
  This is why its piped directly to you home in the US.
For the younger generations... by AdamJS · 2011-10-05 02:42 · Score: 1

the syrian government is losing their standing. Blocking freedom of speech sites, organizing sites, western influences of varying kinds? Sure, you can get away with it. But blocking the porn? That's a recipe for eventual revolution.
The advert on this page right now... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-05 03:28 · Score: 0

ManageEngine Firewall Analyzer.

The context-based advertising program is going it's job well.
how? by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-05 04:17 · Score: 0

anyone know if they hacked the proxies via brute force (weak passwords) or if something else more exploitative was used?
1. Re:how? by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-05 04:31 · Score: 0
  
  The windows server that had the log files dumped to it from the proxies left it's FTP server open for anyone to access. Not really any hacking required, in fact more then once malware was deleted off the FTP share in order to avoid unwanted attention.
  At the beginning of the Syrian protests their Internet Infrastructure was horribly protected. This is just a small selection of what was there, the main problem was that connections from outside syria took too long to download the files before the program that analyzed them rotated the logs and deleted them.
0.003% Cheerleader Porn, 0% Leprechaun Porn by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-05 06:16 · Score: 0

These logs are depressingly mainstream and most of the porn is uncensored. 6.83% of requests failed but most of these were due to connection errors or proxy failures. 1.49% was actively blocked and most of that was chat services and Google spyware.
Although source addreses have been blanked, I'm concerned that the anonymized logs leave user agent strings fully intact because this alone can be used to identify users.
Blue Coat - Violating US sanctions against Syria by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-05 09:21 · Score: 0

Among the various trade and financial sanctions against Syria. The 2004 Presidential Executive Order # 13338 "Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act" (SAA) bans export of network security and network management technology and software.
How was Blue Coat able to sell their box to Syria? When will the Department of Justice open an investigation into this sale?
Cycles are cheap, bandwidth/time isn't. by Deagol · 2011-10-05 13:20 · Score: 1

For hell's sake, man, this is 2011! Why any compressible data is still released using gzip, when xz (even bzip2) is way better, is totally beyond me.
Squash those bits, man! Squash 'em good!

--
Method of processing duck feet