AP
Published: June 28, 2009, 23:14
Tehran: A sharp clampdown by Iranian authorities may have quelled street protests, but the fight goes on in cyberspace.
Groups of 'hacktivists' - web hackers demanding internet freedom - say they are targetting web pages of Iran's leadership in response to the regime's muzzling of blogs, news outlets and other sites.
It's unclear how much the wired warriors have disrupted official Iranian sites. Attempts to access sites for state news organisations, including the Islamic Republic News Agency and Fars, were unsuccessful - with a message saying the links were 'broken.'
Other Iranian websites, including the official site for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, could be viewed.
It's the latest in a widening front of attempts at cyber attacks by activists and others. Earlier this week, Defence Secretary Robert Gates ordered the creation of a new military cyber command that will coordinate the Pentagon's efforts to defend its networks and conduct cyberwarfare.
The co-founder of the Open Source Movement, Eric S. Raymond, has launched a site called NedaNet, after 27-year-old Neda Agha Soltan, who became a global symbol of the post-election protest movement after videos of her death by gunfire was posted on websites.
Raymond described his site as a place for hackers and Iranian protest movement sympathisers from around the world to team up in developing a system of proxy sites that cloak the location of users in Iran from the Iranian government.
Iranian authorities have launched a wide-ranging clampdown on many websites, including blogs, independent news outlets and sites linked to opposition leader Mir Hussain Mousavi, who claims the June 12 presidential election was rigged.
On Saturday, Raymond reported the group would be forced to change some of its tactics because the Iranian government had "upped the level of internet censorship it's engaging in." , He said Iranian government monitors were inspecting traffic more closely.
"We're trying to provide a covert communication channel for dissenters and revolutionaries to organise through," said Raymond in a telephone interview.
Raymond said a team of six hackers spend their days writing software to help Iranian web users bypass state controls. More than 1,000 other people have offered bandwidth on servers to host proxy sites.
A web page called Freedom Sucker shows eight Iranian government sites, including Ahmadinejad's blog, that are under a constant, automated attack by the page's anonymous creator. Every second, the page attempts to reboot the pages in an attempt to overload them.
Other groups are also working to create internet havens for Iranians, including a group called Project Hydra and the Free Net project.
Published: June 28, 2009, 23:14
Tehran: A sharp clampdown by Iranian authorities may have quelled street protests, but the fight goes on in cyberspace.
Groups of 'hacktivists' - web hackers demanding internet freedom - say they are targetting web pages of Iran's leadership in response to the regime's muzzling of blogs, news outlets and other sites.
It's unclear how much the wired warriors have disrupted official Iranian sites. Attempts to access sites for state news organisations, including the Islamic Republic News Agency and Fars, were unsuccessful - with a message saying the links were 'broken.'
Other Iranian websites, including the official site for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, could be viewed.
It's the latest in a widening front of attempts at cyber attacks by activists and others. Earlier this week, Defence Secretary Robert Gates ordered the creation of a new military cyber command that will coordinate the Pentagon's efforts to defend its networks and conduct cyberwarfare.
The co-founder of the Open Source Movement, Eric S. Raymond, has launched a site called NedaNet, after 27-year-old Neda Agha Soltan, who became a global symbol of the post-election protest movement after videos of her death by gunfire was posted on websites.
Raymond described his site as a place for hackers and Iranian protest movement sympathisers from around the world to team up in developing a system of proxy sites that cloak the location of users in Iran from the Iranian government.
Iranian authorities have launched a wide-ranging clampdown on many websites, including blogs, independent news outlets and sites linked to opposition leader Mir Hussain Mousavi, who claims the June 12 presidential election was rigged.
On Saturday, Raymond reported the group would be forced to change some of its tactics because the Iranian government had "upped the level of internet censorship it's engaging in." , He said Iranian government monitors were inspecting traffic more closely.
"We're trying to provide a covert communication channel for dissenters and revolutionaries to organise through," said Raymond in a telephone interview.
Raymond said a team of six hackers spend their days writing software to help Iranian web users bypass state controls. More than 1,000 other people have offered bandwidth on servers to host proxy sites.
A web page called Freedom Sucker shows eight Iranian government sites, including Ahmadinejad's blog, that are under a constant, automated attack by the page's anonymous creator. Every second, the page attempts to reboot the pages in an attempt to overload them.
Other groups are also working to create internet havens for Iranians, including a group called Project Hydra and the Free Net project.
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