U.S./ U.K. Companies Help Egyptian Regime Shut Down Telecoms and Identify Dissident Voices

[seafan]

Amy Goodman at Democracy Now reports:


Digital Darkness: U.S., U.K. Companies Help Egyptian Regime Shut Down Telecommunications and Identify Dissident Voices



February 1, 2011

Doing the regime’s bidding, British-based Vodafone shut down Egypt’s phone and internet service. The American company called Narus — owned by Boeing — sold Egypt the surveillance technology that helped identify dissident voices. We are joined by Tim Karr of Free Press and CUNY Professor C.W. Anderson. Karr outlines how communications was shut down in Egypt and discusses the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act, a proposed Senate bill that could lay the foundation for blocking communications in the United States in the case of a "national threat." Anderson traces the activist roots of Twitter to U.S. protests at the 2004 Republican and Democratic conventions.

(Partial rush transcript follows)

AMY GOODMAN: Social media and online networks played a key role in the early organizing of the Egyptian uprising. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak underlined their power last week when he tried to shut down the internet and cut off most cell phone communication. U.S. officials led the push for Egypt to restore online access, but it was an American company called Narus, which is owned by Boeing, that has aided Egypt’s harsh response by selling them the technology that made this repression possible.

To talk more about this, we’re joined by Tim Karr, campaign director with Free Press, and C.W. Anderson, an assistant professor of communications at City University of New York. C.W. Anderson has been looking at the role of Twitter in the rebellions in Egypt and elsewhere, by those who were able to access the service.

So, Tim, let’s begin with the issue of Vodafone and Narus. Explain how, in one fell swoop, the country could be plunged into digital darkness.

TIM KARR: Well, it’s interesting. What we’re seeing is the same technology that has enabled freedom movements around the world is also being used to target and track down political dissidents. In the case of Egypt, we have a company called Narus, as you mentioned—it’s now owned by Boeing—that sells what’s called Deep Packet Inspection. It allows the Egyptian telecommunications companies, many of which are run by the state, to open up online communications, to look at texting via cell phones, and to identify the sort of dissident voices that are out there. And it goes beyond that. It also gives them the technology to geographically locate them and track them down. We had a similar problem happen in 2009 in Iran, when you had Nokia Siemens, which was a Finnish-German joint venture, selling technology to the Iranian Telecom Authority, which was also owned by the Revolutionary Guard there, to be used to track down and imprison cyber-dissidents there. And Egypt has a very sophisticated internet infrastructure, which, again, is a double-edged sword, because it’s made it very easy for the government to shut it off, while at the same time allowed for this sort of outpouring of dissidence. And the Reporters Without Borders has taken a deep look at internet abuses in Egypt and ranks it as one of the largest internet enemies.

AMY GOODMAN: So, explain the difference between Narus and Vodafone. What roles do each play?

TIM KARR: Well, Narus provides a technology that sits on routers throughout the Egyptian network, that filters and spies on communications. It’s a surveillance technology. Narus was started by Israeli security experts. And they specialize in selling this. They sell it to other governments. Vodafone is a mobile phone technology system. The Vodafone Egypt is another joint venture there that also has a large Egypt control, which allows them to pull the switch on cell phone communications.

AMY GOODMAN: What about the bill that’s being introduced here—I think it’s by Senators Lieberman and Collins—that would allow the U.S. government to shut down civilian access to the internet?

TIM KARR: Yes. The bill is somewhat inelegantly called the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act. It was introduced in the last session.

.....

TIM KARR: It was introduced in the last session by Senators Lieberman, Carper of Delaware, and Collins of Maine. It made it through the Homeland Security Committee in December, but it died by the end of the session. A Wired story from earlier this week indicated that they intend to reintroduce this bill. And the problem with the bill is that it creates in the executive branch the capacity to cut down what they call critical—to shut down critical infrastructure in the case of a national threat. So, we are—at Free Press and others, ACLU and others, are trying to make sure that that legislation, if it goes forward, doesn’t have that specific language in it.

A quick review of what Mr. Lieberman is spearheading:

June 2, 2010:

Lieberman Bill Gives Feds ‘Emergency’ Powers to Secure Civilian Nets

Joe Lieberman wants to give the federal government the power to take over civilian networks’ security, if there’s an “imminent cyber threat.” It’s part of a draft bill, co-sponsored by Senators Lieberman and Susan Collins, that provides the Department of Homeland Security broad authority to ensure that “critical infrastructure” stays up and running in the face of a looming hack attack.

.....

Lieberman and Collins’ solution is one of the more far-reaching proposals. In the Senators’ draft bill, “the President may issue a declaration of an imminent cyber threat to covered critical infrastructure.” Once such a declaration is made, the director of a DHS National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications is supposed to “develop and coordinate emergency measures or actions necessary to preserve the reliable operation, and mitigate or remediate the consequences of the potential disruption, of covered critical infrastructure.”

.....

“The owner or operator of covered critical infrastructure shall comply with any emergency measure or action developed by the Director,” the bill adds.

These emergency measures are supposed to remain in place for no more than 30 days. But they can be extended indefinitely, a month at a time.

When is his retirement again?



And as of yesterday, this headline:


January 31, 2011

Egypt’s Last-Standing ISP Goes Dark

A small Egyptian ISP that continued sputtering along after the government ordered Egypt off the internet Friday is now offline.

Security researcher Renesys said Monday the Noor Group, believed to be the last Egyptian ISP in operation, had provided access to the aviation, banking and financial sectors — including the Egyptian stock market.

“They are completely unavailable at present,” Renesys wrote of the ISP.

Egypt’s major providers — Link Egypt, Vodafone/Raya, Telecom Egypt, Etisalat Misr — and all their customers and partners, went dark Friday. Renesys said the Egyptian government’s actions were “unprecedented in internet history.”

The Egyptian net began going out Friday as Facebook, Twitter and other online forums helped fuel large-scale protests against President Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule. Mobile-phone communications have also been shut down.

Egypt has also closed Al Jazeera’s office in Cairo, arrested a half-dozen of the news outlet’s reporters, and seized their equipment.

(graphic from above link)



To recap:


The US Government/MIC bought internet surveillance technology developed and sold to governments by Israel; this surveillance technology allows governments to target and track their citizens, and to summarily shut down access to the Internet.

The US Government/MIC, in turn, resold this surveillance technology to Egypt. It is being used by the Egyptian government against its citizens to plunge the entire country into 'digital darkness', at an unprecedented time in history when the Egyptian people want to throw out their current dictatorship and install a new government responsive to their needs.


As of yesterday, the Egyptian government has shut down the entire country from the internet. Banks, financial institutions, businesses, hospitals, news organizations, citizens.


And the joint venture between the UK and Egypt's Vodaphone service allows for complete governmental shutdown of cell phone service to the people of Egypt.



Now, everyone can see the hidden hands colluding to maintain this repression of the people of Egypt in order to protect the "stability" of a 30-year dictatorial regime.


This will be quite the sticky wicket for many of the Western actors involved.


It is not a kind picture.

[villager]

one of the best things about the fall of the current Egyptian government will be the info release

...showing what the U.S. has actually been up to. More Wiki-style leaks, as information is brought, kicking and screaming, into the light...

[EFerrari]

4. Also, ideas for working around government shut-downs. Check this out when you can.

Hackers' Egypt Rescue: Get Protesters Back Online
With the Internet down across Egypt, Google and Twitter have come up with a way for Egyptians to tweet using their phones. Now, Dan Lyons reports, a group of hackers is close to delivering software that could turn laptops into low-cost Internet routers—and help protesters organize.

http://www.newsweek.com/2011/02/01/hackers-egypt-rescue-get-protesters-back-online.html

[villager]

5. I wonder if Google and Twitter will be as cooperative when the "blackout" happens here?

:shrug:

[EFerrari]

7. I agree with you. Plus, that twitter work around

can be used as a honey pot to gather identities and locations, afaik. ETA But this article isn't about google or twitter but about something called "mesh" networking. :shrug:

[villager]

1. dupe

DU's software is more emphatic about the point than I am -- repeating it twice! ;-)

[gratuitous]

2. Like mercenaries anywhere, they'll do whatever their customer pays them to do

Morality? Ethics? Just words. There is money to be made, and tell your human standard of decency to go Cheney itself.

[defendandprotect]

3. Liberman/Collins bill would allow US government to shut down civilian access to internet --

AMY GOODMAN: What about the bill that’s being introduced here—I think it’s by Senators Lieberman and Collins—that would allow the U.S. government to shut down civilian access to the internet?

TIM KARR: Yes. The bill is somewhat inelegantly called the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act. It was introduced in the last session.

.....

TIM KARR: It was introduced in the last session by Senators Lieberman, Carper of Delaware, and Collins of Maine. It made it through the Homeland Security Committee in December, but it died by the end of the session. A Wired story from earlier this week indicated that they intend to reintroduce this bill. And the problem with the bill is that it creates in the executive branch the capacity to cut down what they call critical—to shut down critical infrastructure in the case of a national threat. So, we are—at Free Press and others, ACLU and others, are trying to make sure that that legislation, if it goes forward, doesn’t have that specific language in it.

[snot]

6. K&R'd