Tuesday 16 June 2009

Hacking the Iranian Government

There is little we can do to support the Persian uprising. Even official western support can backfire, as the propaganda uses it to suggest that the protests are instigated by the USA and Europe. However I understand that some protesters have asked, through the internet, for help in attacking government websites. This website has been set up to make repeated requests to ten different Iranian government sites (a distributed denial of service attack, DDOS). If enough people use it then those sites will crash. Government IT specialists helping to keep their sites running are not attacking the sources of information and communication for the protests.

My best wishes to the Persian people. I hate to be racist, but all the Persians I have ever met have been lovely. It is so sad that their homeland is suffering so much from the insane theocracy. Good luck!

Update: Oh, and check out this person's Twitter feed (you don't need to be a Twit to do it, I am not a member) for continuous information. This is Twitter's finest hour.

Further update: Iranian protesters have now asked that we stop attacking Iranian government sites, as this is now going so far as to slow traffic to all websites. Hence I have changed the link.

Yet another update: this is a confused situation. It appears to be that the Iranian government is itself capping the private internet bandwidth, but leaving itself unrestricted. This would mean that we should go back to the DDOS (distributed denial of service) attacks I was giving earlier. I think this is probably correct: the government servers cannot possibly cope with traffic that would slow down the rest of the internet traffic in a country with the high internet coverage in Iran. The original link is here.

Another plea: please join Twitter and set your location to Tehran, your time zone to GMT +3:30. Members of Twitter, please for now set the time and location. The Iranian security forces are looking for Iranian members. They are searching on this information, and we can help a little to hide the genuine Iranian Twitterers. I have joined just for this purpose, as randomxnp. so say hi, but don't expect me to have any idea what Twitter is about or how to reply! Good luck to the people of Iran.

Another way of helping: the Iranian government is blocking sites, so the protest groups are using proxy servers. If any of you know how to set up your own proxy server, please do so and Tweet the IP address to @gr88 or @stopAhmadi. Don't Twitter it more widely, as the security forces are blocking any proxy they know about, which is why they need a continuing supply. I think I have set one up, but don't know enough to give advice to others. There are some links here.

Update: we can't do much, but it can be a great comfort in adversity to know that real people all over the world are thinking of you. The Stand With Iran website is uploading pictures of supporters.

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6 comments:

North Northwester said...
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North Northwester said...
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North Northwester said...

More advice from Boingboing via Cassandra Troy

BoingBoing: "Cyberwar guide for Iran elections"

1. Do NOT publicise proxy IP's over twitter, and especially not using the #iranelection hashtag. Security forces are monitoring this hashtag, and the moment they identify a proxy IP they will block it in Iran. If you are creating new proxies for the Iranian bloggers, DM them to @stopAhmadi or @iran09 and they will distributed them discretely to bloggers in Iran.

2. Hashtags, the only two legitimate hashtags being used by bloggers in Iran are #iranelection and #gr88, other hashtag ideas run the risk of diluting the conversation.

3. Keep you bull$hit filter up! Security forces are now setting up twitter accounts to spread disinformation by posing as Iranian protesters. Please don't retweet impetuosly, try to confirm information with reliable sources before retweeting. The legitimate sources are not hard to find and follow.

4. Help cover the bloggers: change your twitter settings so that your location is TEHRAN and your time zone is GMT +3.30. Security forces are hunting for bloggers using location and timezone searches. If we all become 'Iranians' it becomes much harder to find them.

5. Don't blow their cover! If you discover a genuine source, please don't publicise their name or location on a website. These bloggers are in REAL danger. Spread the word discretely through your own networks but don't signpost them to the security forces. People are dying there, for real, please keep that in mind... (...) >>>

Green Revolution has more guidelines for the cyber revolutionary.

But wait a minute ... isn't green the color of Islam? And isn't Islam as a political ideology precisely what we're aiming to oust here? And what about the strong Marxist component? It would be an awful shame to replace one Islamofascist regime with another oppressive collective!

Updating throughout ...

North Northwester said...

Thanks for the link too.

I see the Penguin's done you proud
http://therantingkingpenguin.blogspot.com/2009/06/what-little-we-can-do-lets-do.html

and Julia

http://thylacosmilus.blogspot.com/2009/06/workbloggers-beware.html

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