Syria is Offline, Unreachable via the Internet

By Wolfgang Gruener
published

Syria's Internet connectivity has been completely crippled since the early morning of today (EST).

According to Renesys, all of Syria's 84 IP address blocks are unreachable. The company's traceroutes identified five networks that use Syrian-registered IP space and host Syrian content, but these traces lead Tata Communications and offshore destinations. "[These networks] perhaps [are] not subject to whatever killswitch was thrown today within Syria," Renesys wrote in a blog post.

Akamai confirmed the Renesys report and published a traffic chart that visualizes the sudden traffic drop at 10:26 UTC/GMT.

Arbor networks also documented the shutdown of Syria's Internet with a similar characteristic as the shutdown of the Internet in Egypt in January 2011. Egypt was offline nearly seven days back then.

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Wolfgang Gruener
Topics
Internet
30 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Onus
    The Syrian Government no doubt would like to slaughter a lot of its citizens (possibly as thoughtless "collateral damage"), and doesn't want word getting out until it's done.
    Reply
  • A Bad Day
    There was an article in a magazine that talked about the Syrian government's strategy. Instead of directly silencing the rebels, they would hack into the leading rebels' various accounts ranging from Gmail to Twitter, or trick the leaders by having agents pose as followers.

    They would then either trace the leaders and "disappear" them, or trick the followers into installing spywares onto their computers, and use other sabotages.

    As a result, some of the rebels that were interviewed admitted that they were afraid of using the internet, and attempted to counter-act the espionage, such as contacting western security firms to assist in identifying and stopping the new spywares.

    The Syrian war isn't just a war. It's also a major cyberwar, with each side trying to gain the advantage over the other.
    Reply
  • esrever
    I have a bad feeling about this...
    Reply
  • someguynamedmatt
    Time to watch the conspiracy theories pour into the comment section...
    Reply
  • A Bad Day
    someguynamedmattTime to watch the conspiracy theories pour into the comment section...
    Most obvious one: The Syrian government got tired of playing Mr. Hacker and decided to play Mr. Shutdown_Everything
    Reply
  • thecolorblue
    Is it likely that all of Syria's traffic flows through a single room?
    Reply
  • Gundam288
    A Bad DayThe Syrian war isn't just a war. It's also a major cyberwar, with each side trying to gain the advantage over the other.
    WWI: Trench Warfare

    WWII: Nukes

    WWIII: Cyber Warfare

    Makes me wonder what they will think up next.
    Reply
  • Parsian
    The so called Free Syrian Army is a disorganized collection of jobless (often al qaeda) mercenaries from all over the middle east and africa who get paid by the US backed Saudi Arabia/Jordon/Qatar to destabilize Iran's ally Syria and remove Russian's naval presence for the benefit of Israel/US. Assad is horrible, but he is secular. His removal will only achieve an extreme Sunni variant (Saudi backed) government which is no better or perhaps even worse than Assad for US interest. US should stay the fuck out of this and not play proxy wars as everybody in middle east at the end of the day will point finger at US for supporting Saudi's agenda. Free Syrian Army was brought back together to reorgonize after they got fall apart since they had no real goal (look up recent gatherings in middle east to orgonize the opposition against Assad after they got seperated.) Free Syrian Army is also behind many killings of innocent people due to differences in ideology.
    Reply
  • jisamaniac
    Gundam288WWI: Trench WarfareWWII: NukesWWIII: Cyber WarfareMakes me wonder what they will think up next.
    Space Warfare!
    Reply
  • JohnGalt1
    spaceballsMust be the CIA or something... who else controls the internet... USA(under Israel pressure) has been trying to go to war with a peaceful (40 years) country for what 2 years now....pathetic...Yea, maybe it was the US Air Force, shutting off the internet so that they can take over Syria and use it as a base for their top secret Blimp Bomber Core.
    Reply