Security Firm: “Syria Has Largely Disappeared From The Internet”
War-torn Syria is reportedly experiencing massive Internet outages. Both Google’s transparency monitor and security firm Cloudflare are reporting near zero levels of traffic out of the area. This isn’t the first time the beleaguered nation has experienced Internet issues. Back in 2012, the Syrian government, in attempt to paralyze opposition rebels, cut the entire country off from the rest of the world. “Syria has largely disappeared from the Internet,” writes security firm, Umbrella, about the abrupt traffic stop today. Umbrella describes how such a cutoff is possible, “Routing on the Internet relies on the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). BGP distributes routing information and makes sure all routers on the Internet know how to get to a certain IP address.” Continuing, ” Shutting down Internet access to and from Syria is achieved by withdrawing the BGP routes from Syrian prefixes.” Last December, we interviewed Cloudflare about how exactly a government can cut off its citizens ...
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AP Twitter Hack Preceded By A Phishing Attempt, News Org Says
The AP Twitter hack which sent the stock market briefly crashing was caused by a phishing attack, according to the AP. The news organization now says the attack on Twitter was “preceded by a phishing attempt on AP’s corporate network.” The Twitter attack, which has now become another high-profile example of why Twitter may serve as a breaking news outlet, but not a trustworthy one, came less than an hour after AP staff received “an impressively disguised phishing email” – at least, according to AP reporter Mike Baker, who shared this detail on Twitter. His account does not appear to be hacked, though we’ve asked both Baker and AP to confirm that fact, as well as the context of his tweets. (More to come Update: Although the AP confirmed the Twitter hack was preceded by a phishing attempt, an AP spokesperson declined to confirm Baker’s time frame of “less than an hour,” saying the AP had nothing further to add at this time.) While the tweet referencing an attack on the ...
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Syrian Malware Servers Survive, Then Die
Nerval's Lobster writes "A massive outage knocked Syria's Internet offline Nov. 29 — with the exception of five servers implicated in serving malware earlier this year. But the next day, those five servers went dark as well. Internet analytics firm Renesys suggested late Nov. 29 that those five servers were likely offshore. 'Now, there are a few Syrian networks that are still connected to the Internet, still reachable by traceroutes, and indeed still hosting Syrian content,' the company wrote in a blog post. 'These are five networks that use Syrian-registered IP space, but the originator of the routes is actually Tata Communications. These are potentially offshore, rather than domestic, and perhaps not subject to whatever killswitch was thrown today within Syria.' By the morning of Nov. 30, those five servers went offline. 'The last 5 networks belonging to Syria, a set of smaller netblocks previously advertised by Tata Communications, have been torn down and are no longer routed,' Renesys ...
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Syria rebels seek weapons, money on Turkish border
Some fighters make their own weapons as prices have skyrocketed. The only well-stocked militias are those affiliated with Islamist factions. ALONG THE SYRIA-TURKEY BORDER — The bomb maker was displaying his homemade mortar launcher, crafted from a tube and bits of metal. "Whatever we need to produce, we Google it," said the factory worker turned rebel commander and arms procurer in a border village where goats and insurgents walk along steep mountain paths.
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