⚠️ Update: #Iran's internet blackout has entered its 40th day after 936 hours of near-total disconnection from the outside world.

The wartime censorship measure continues even as the US and Iran regimes each declare victory, with the Iranian people once again left in the dark.

@netblocks The more I think about it, the more I wonder if this blackout isn’t designed to protect their people rather than keep them in the dark. Cyberattacks on Iran’s critical infrastructure could damage water and power plants remotely without even using a missile. Disconnecting from the attacker’s network is probably wise.

@ClickyMcTicker @netblocks
If this is the kind of reasoning you call thinking, do yourself a favor and stop.

There are 195 countries in the world and only one supposedly ‘protects its people’ by cutting them off completely?

It’s shocking that people can’t see the pure evil at work and instead make moral excuses to ignore the suffering of ordinary citizens in Iran.

@danialbehzadi @netblocks I don’t plan on turning my brain off, so your recommendation is noted and ignored.

There are 195 countries on the world, and *two* have intentionally cut their country off from the Internet. Iran may be in the news currently, but North Korea never connected in the first place. Their Internet blackout is more than thirty years old.

It doesn’t take a degree in social work to understand that both regimes are cruel to their own people. Nobody doubts they are using the information blackout to suppress information and dissent, yet that also happens daily around the world in places that *are* connected to the Internet.

Despite that, the Iranian government has a history of industrial control systems being targeted by cyberattacks. Their centrifuges were what brought that concept to the general public, even if it has been mostly forgotten.

https://www.cert-ist.com/public/en/SO_detail?code=stuxnet

The world is more connected than ever, and that includes critical infrastructure such as electrical power systems, water systems, hospitals, and more.

https://dailysecurityreview.com/security-spotlight/volt-typhoon-energy-grid-cyberattack-exposes-us-infrastructure-vulnerabilities/

https://statescoop.com/minot-north-dakota-water-treatment-ransomware/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2950386825000103

https://academic.oup.com/jcsl/article-abstract/17/2/212/852771

It should surprise nobody that the American government, whose leader admits to war crimes on live TV then later threatens the genocide of all Iranians, would be launching relentless attacks on Iranian infrastructure should it still be connected to the Internet.

Is the Iranian government taking the moral high ground? Of course not. They’re launching their own attacks in retaliation, except they have their choice of targets.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/iran-linked-hackers-take-aim-at-u-s-and-other-targets-raising-risk-of-cyberattacks-during-war

The only people who can confirm if this outage is intended to suppress the Iranian people or protect Iranian infrastructure are unlikely to answer that question truthfully. Their desired outcome could even have been both.

Alas, both governments are actively violating the basic human rights of the Iranian people. My comment was about whether the outage was wholly for that purpose or if it was also a new defensive strategy we should expect in future wars.

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@danialbehzadi @netblocks Beyond all that, I did scroll through your profile. I didn’t see specifics, but I did get the impression that this topic is extremely close to home for you. I hope that you stay safe, stay connected, and that this war ends quickly.