Iran accused of using online censorship and hacking to sway presidential poll
Source: The Guardian
Iranian authorities are mounting a sophisticated campaign of online censorship, hacking attacks and filtering to influence the country's imminent presidential elections, according to reports from people inside the country and security researchers outside.
Iranians are finding that text messages or websites containing certain words, such as candidates' names or slogans, are being intermittently blocked, while some news sites within the country are taken offline entirely. Those that try to relocate overseas have been subjected to extensive DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks – which make it impossible for regular users to access websites – from computers in Russian or eastern Europe, while reporters and activists have reported receiving phishing emails containing viruses or surveillance software.
The approach marks a stepped increase in sophistication in internet filtering in Iran. During the 2009 election and the uprising that followed, authorities sometimes simply turned off the internet, or text messaging, across the country for days at a time. Now they are working in a far more targeted manner.
The censorship also reflects the country's internal divisions. Until a year ago Iran's ministry of information and communications technology was in charge of policing the country's online community but in 2012 the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered officials to set up the Supreme Council of Virtual Space, a body that is closer to Khamenei than to the outgoing president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. That council sits at the top of a complex web of organisations that monitor and filter communications in the country.
Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/31/iran-online-censorship-influence-election
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