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Bahrain Activists Battered By IP Tracking Attacks
An anonymous reader writes "Having been targeted by malware in the past, anti-government protesters in Bahrain are now being hit hard by IP tracking attacks, according to a researcher. Bill Marczak, of Bahrain Watch and Citizen Lab, who is putting together a report on the attacks, said it appeared Bahrain officials had been masquerading as fake activists, sending obfuscated URLs to targets to learn their IP address. The next step is to take the IP address and the time of the click to the relevant ISP to find out who the user is. Then all sorts of things can happen. 'People who have clicked on these links have suffered various types of consequences ranging from having their houses raided and being charged for saying insulting things about the king on Twitter, or losing their jobs,' says Marczak. 'It looks like, from our investigation so far, in one case, the government did lock up the wrong person.'"
because the Bahrain government is sponsored by Saudi Arabia, and the USA has a big military base there. Consistently these protests have been ignored, or if covered, the Western media has put a pro government slant, especially on the Saudi Arabia aided crackdown awhile back. Western hypocrisy on full display, just like in a sports match it's just fine if your team does it while it's the embodiment of evil if the other team does it (see Libya, Syria).
But then, it's always an arms to see which side keeps ahead of whom....
If you're going to be a repressive tyrant, at least do it right. While the false positive rate on true dissidents probably limits the effectiveness to some degree, the much more chilling effect is to make people afraid to read any anti-regime news. That's probably much more valuable to them in the long run than nabbing a few people they consider troublesome.
This is what Tor is for. Use it.
what can possibly go right?
Captcha: nothing
Old folks do not even remember times of serfdom and ownership of land was restricted to the privileged.
Land and information is not all that different in terms of power and wealth.
Or is this a Tor troll?
So now, since I'm from the US, I'm up to:
The Thailand royal party sucks
The queen of England sucks
The king of Bahrain sucks
Are there any I missed insulting where it's legal in the US but illegal in their own country?
Anyway, anyone with a brain should be using TOR. They can track that all the way to a known exit node and that's it. Most smaller countries like this can't block every known TOR exit node either. Even China has problems blocking every single one.
"...in one case, the government did lock up the wrong person."
The fact they lock up anyone for speaking their mind makes that an oxymoron.
The Monarchy of Bahrain, has again and again, committed crimes against the civil population. Unlike other Arab nations, little or nothing is said in corporate media or by the US Gov. officials, simply because the Bahrain monarchy is an "ally" that allows an US military base in their soil.
The last time a movement not too different to the Egyptians and Tunisians (plaza included); was dealt by bringing Saudi (foreign) military troops against the population. That monarchy further proceeded to demolish the place and built a road on it, so that the symbol was never more.
"America", of course, turns a blind eye...
Shortly before the Arab Spring, Hillary Clinton praised Bahrain for embarking upon a "democratic path." Obama has since called on Bahrain's rulers to implement reforms, but he's held back from speaking out as forcefully against the crackdown as he did with countries like Libya and Syria. The Obama administration is currently delaying a $53 million arms sale to Bahrain until an "independent" Bahraini panel issues a report on alleged human rights abuses during the uprising.
Why is it we're not leaping to defend the uprisers? The U.S. Navy enjoys having its Fifth Fleet stationed in Bahrain. Bahrain lives adjacent to the persian gulf, which is incidentally pissing distance from our latest boogeyman Iran. Why no arms deal? its not because we give a shit so much as to ensure we can guarantee their military wont stage a coup in the name of the people and oust our convenient dictator...because thats a thing that sometimes happens when people dont like you sticking your dick in their regional politics.
and if you're concerned this is an obama "thing," crack open your history books and turn to the carter doctrine. Jimmy basically guaranteed we have to spend the rest of our miserable existence stirring a kettle of kalashnikovs for cheap oil.
Good people go to bed earlier.
.... the local American scene:
http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/07/30/stop-and-frisk-for-local-environmentalists
I don't know about your priorities, but "we the programmers" are important partners for those resisting true tyrannies. Thus, pursue making your programs compatible as tools of revolution - not something that will get freedom fighters and their friends thrown into jails.
Consider communicating to the internet using HTTPS, TOR or something similar. Have cell-phone pictures (atleast those from the worst totalitarian countries) by default stripped off their GPS-data and other identification data. Embrace anonymity by default. And if possible make all your communication and messaging software end- to-end encrypted. And finally help the revolunaries getting rid of incriminating evidence from the hard disks, USB sticks; for example by overwriting data not just by removing filenames.
Those who trust their lives, and the lives of their loved ones, upon your software do appreciate you going that extra mile.
The British government has sent high ranking police and intelligence officers on secondment into Bahrain to oversee the crackdown on democracy protesters. Under direct instructions from the UK, all activists, their families, friends and other associates are monitored 24/7. Key leaders are targeted for arrest, followed by either torture and then long prison sentences, or simple murder. The British are operating the same plans as they followed in various colonial states toward the end of the British Empire.
The British tactic involves manipulating the highest ranking members of the activist organisation, while exterminating all lower members that have potential, but little media awareness. Britain follows the Ancient Roman model of keeping the most public of the activist leaders alive, in case they are useful as co-opted dupes in some future political re-arrangement in the nation involved (see Nelson Mandela as one of the greatest recent examples of this tactic in play).
Anyway, sadly for the people involved, this is a non-story on a global level. Try asking yourselves why British Intelligence has arranged massive prison break-outs in Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan in the last few days. Maybe Blair wants one last round of terrorist cannon fodder to send against the poor people of Syria, but this seems way too small fry for Blair. It looks like Tony Blair is gearing up for another "Emmanuel Goldstein"-ploy now that the long-dead bin Laden was given a very public, very fake post-mortem death years after the real event.
PS ever ask yourself why the US and Blair are destroying significant secular nations of the Earth one-by-one, and replacing them with extremist theocracies, usually with very close links to Israel and Saudi Arabia? Iraq, Libya and Syria were modern socialist states that respected the rights of women, and freedom of conscience. Your best mate, Obama, only loves Middle East states that have ZERO freedom of conscience, and treat women atrociously.
"Kingdoms" belong in the past. It's hypocritical of a democracy (maybe that should be in scare quotes) to even recognise a monarchy as a legitimate government (of course we all know the reasons why they do, convenience and favours chief amongst them).
But yeah the rightful place for a King is in a guillotine, in my humble opinion.
Kinda makes me despair about our species in general. We're always a slip away from this kind of bullshit in any society. Celebrity worship/obsession is the same kind of thing, nascent king-making.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
i am in Bahrain - this article has been blocked from IP addresses in this country
IP addresses aren't always a direct indication of who is responsible. And, even when they are, they might be wrong if someone hijacked your wifi. This can't end well.
Often when I sent out a tweet, I get a reply by some random vague twitter account with some obfuscated URL. I considered this to be spam (usually I don't click on it), but could it be some automated system run by some government to collect IP-addresses of people who post critical tweets?
I am in Bahrain .. all activist terrorism loyalty is to Iran ... Iran investing in them .. the majority are happy
however they are just few
Bahrain Watch, the group that did the study in to the IP spying issue, has published its press release and technical report on the subject:
http://bahrainwatch.org/blog/2013/07/31/bahrain-govt-using-fake-twitter-accounts-to-track-online-critics/
http://bahrainwatch.org/ipspy/viewreport.php