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Iran's Revolutionary Guard has claimed responsibility for cyber attacks that took down 29 websites. Iran claims that the sites were affiliated with U.S. intelligence agencies. The sites appear to be sites criticizing Iran's human rights violations.  (Source: LA Times)
Extreme Middle Eastern government also arrests local activists in crack-down on dissent

Iran's state-directed Fars News Agency reported on Sunday that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps had carried out cyber attacks against 29 websites affiliated with U.S. espionage networks.  Fars stated, "The hacked websites acted against Iran's national security under the cover of human rights activities."

The nation of Iran has been in the midst of controversy surrounding the 2009 election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over Mir-Hossein Mousavi.  The U.S. and EU alleged that Ahmadinejad may have committed voter fraud to stay in power.

In the wake of this criticism, Ahmadinejad has used Iran's Revolutionary Guard to crack down on dissent, including peaceful protests.  He has arrested many, accusing them of civil and religious violations.  The Revolutionary Guard consists of army, navy, air force, and intelligence units, as well as the Basij paramilitary force and various business units.

One of the sites taken down over the weekend belonged to a group calling itself the Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRAI).  It is unclear if the group truly had any ties to U.S. intelligence agencies, or whether the Iranian press merely made the allegations because of the group's criticism of Ahmadinejad.  Cached versions of the site contain accounts of protests held in Iran.

The Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran's official news agency, was the first to break the news of the takedowns, reporting Saturday that the Iranian government had foiled "US backed cyber war networks" with cyber attacks.  In addition to the attacks on the 29 websites, both news agencies report that 30 individuals were arrested.  

Neither news agency provided any evidence backing their claims that the sites were U.S. affiliated.  However, the IRNA claimed that the sites were backed by $400M USD in funding from the U.S.'s Central Intelligence Agency spent on an effort to destabilize Iran.

A full list of the sites can be found here.

Over the last couple of years, a growing number of cyber attacks have originated from Iran.  Some are officially endorsed by the Iranian government, others have not been.

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Internet Freedom
By ajfink on 3/16/2010 8:40:36 AM , Rating: 3
Occurrences like this really underscore the need for free Internet in theocratic and democratically oppressed nations. Recent moves by the US government to allow tech companies to export more user services to these countries should only be the first step. In some countries, there is a dearth of hardware as well due to embargoes and sanctions. Even technology from a few years ago would do wonders, and it certainly wouldn't help countries develop SAMs or ballistic missiles.

There is a reason there is hubbub about the Internet being on the list for the Nobel Peace Prize (although after last year's presumptuous choice, it doesn't have quite the same dazzle). Information is a great weapon for freedom.

Here's a toast to Iran, China, Burma/Myanmar, and North Korea, among others.




RE: Internet Freedom
By stimudent on 3/16/2010 9:00:20 AM , Rating: 5
Iran will be pissed when they realized they hacked into dummy/decoy systems!


RE: Internet Freedom
By inperfectdarkness on 3/16/2010 9:47:48 AM , Rating: 2
bingo. no one except those who actually work in cyber-defense/cyber-offense are actually aware of how deep the rabbit hole goes. even then, the secrets are fragmented & handed out piecemeal--making for a very, very tricky nut to crack.


RE: Internet Freedom
By Vagisil on 3/16/10, Rating: -1
RE: Internet Freedom
By MrBlastman on 3/16/2010 10:16:54 AM , Rating: 5
Wait... So you're saying we should oppress the oppressed so they don't learn they are being oppressed and revolt?

Keep using the ointment man, it usually takes 10 - 14 days to start clearing things up. ;)

The only way to fight back against tyrants such as Mahmoud is knowledge and action. Take away the internet and they'll remain blind and their cries will remain... filtered from our ears. The truth will become buried like it was for years behind the Berlin wall.


RE: Internet Freedom
By Ammohunt on 3/16/2010 2:47:39 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
The only way to fight back against tyrants such as Mahmoud is action with JDAM's and limited tatcical nuclear weapons.


Their fixed it for you. YW!


RE: Internet Freedom
By Chernobyl68 on 3/16/2010 3:44:10 PM , Rating: 2
sweet.


RE: Internet Freedom
By MrBlastman on 3/16/2010 4:01:11 PM , Rating: 3
We'd also need cluster bombs to take on Iran... just in case. Jdams are far too heavy and have too small of a blast radius to be effective en masse against these guys--they hide everywhere so an all-out area effect obliterative assault might yield greater casualties. It was a great thought though and totally see your point. I thoroughly condone it. :) Thanks.

The JDAMs might be best used to take out surrounding structures causing them to run into the streets, then... >:) ---->

I'd probably suggest some:

CBU-97's (IR seeker heads per bomblet for armored formations)

CBU-58/59's (650+ titanium pellet bomblets that are also flammable for human formations)

CBU-87's (combined effect munitions for massed deployments of people/vehicles/armor)

I'd set the BA (burst altitude) for around 3000 ft AGL, depending on ground target formation (to allow for maximum dispersal of bomblets over the target area before impact), consider RP (ripple) value set at 2 with a 200 - 600 ft distance between each CBU release to allow for maximum spread. Of course, the distance between release will vary dependent on which munition is used as they all have different areas of effect.

It is important to take out all of the stragglers. After a successful strike I'd recommend a follow-up napalm strike to burn the area and cleans it for immediate insertion of rehabilitative population reinforcement.


RE: Internet Freedom
By Felofasofa on 3/17/2010 8:29:17 PM , Rating: 3
It's scary how de-sensitised you really are, fantasising mass carnage. Such pride in naming the weapons. You're sick, you need to take a hard look at your value system, because it's screwed. I'm way more scared of nut-jobs like you than anyone from the mid-east.


RE: Internet Freedom
By whiskerwill on 3/18/2010 12:53:58 PM , Rating: 1
He names a couple weapon systems, and that makes him worse than a middle eastern terrorist?

Man, talk about sick.


RE: Internet Freedom
By SPOOFE on 3/16/2010 12:51:59 PM , Rating: 5
quote:
meanwhile those using it will think they're more anonymous/more free/safer. They'll go out to protest, will be arrested and executed

Right, its the people's fault for wanting to be able to chit-chat without fear of a death sentence. How dare they be so uppity!! Let's not blame the maniacs that think AIM deserves a hangin' (or whatever), no, they're sweet innocent little lambs in all this. It's the PEOPLE's fault!


RE: Internet Freedom
By ChugokuOtaku on 3/16/10, Rating: -1
RE: Internet Freedom
By ajfink on 3/16/2010 10:35:42 AM , Rating: 3
If you think China doesn't suppress democracy and activism, you're kidding yourself. Or, you haven't looked at its human rights record lately. Liu Xiaobo ring a bell?

As for the Internet, China filters. Whether or not the Internet savvy get past it is irrelevant.


RE: Internet Freedom
By Penti on 3/16/10, Rating: 0
RE: Internet Freedom
By ChugokuOtaku on 3/17/2010 9:01:03 AM , Rating: 2
I guess I should have better clarified my post.
No where in my post did I even mention that China doesn't suppress democracy. I completely admit that China has a long way to go in those respects.

I'm simply stating that grouping China into the above mentioned list of mostly unstable regimes doesn't make a lot of sense.

I'm sorry if there's a lack of internet savvy users in the US, but I have met few people from China born in the 80s or later and don't know what a proxy server is.


RE: Internet Freedom
By MrBlastman on 3/16/2010 11:10:04 AM , Rating: 3
quote:
ronery madman who looks to the military to keep an iron grip on everything


Say what? Opium is also abundant in China... perhaps you've sampled some?

What about the secret prisons that people vanish to? What about the business owners that are executed for things their companies do?

Or... how about the employees who are hunted down and killed for messing up on the job?

Sounds like a swell place we all should live at!


RE: Internet Freedom
By Penti on 3/16/10, Rating: -1
RE: Internet Freedom
By MrBlastman on 3/16/2010 3:41:21 PM , Rating: 2
The U.S. does not have "secret jails." That is a key difference. The Chinese do. The Chinese are also not reporting how much they jail in secret jails, which, by accounts, is quite a bit. They conveniently make people "go away" there.

How can you defend or justify that?


RE: Internet Freedom
By Xenoid on 3/17/2010 11:23:58 PM , Rating: 3
Are you ignorant? The USA, Russia, China, and the UK run most of the "secret jails" in the the world. The USA has a semi-public one in Guantanamo Bay but do realise that the CIA has been caught selling heroin multiple times and whatnot. The USA is also the worlds number one arms dealer, both to developed nations and to guerilla units in countries of the United States. Get with reality man.


RE: Internet Freedom
By Iaiken on 3/16/2010 11:15:45 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
can't forget that they're America's biggest trading partner after all


I certainly can since the America's biggest trading partner is Canada. Go ahead and find me a single month where China topped Canada for trade. :P

http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/top/

Lastly, if you don't think the CCG and it's satellite governments are not corrupt, oppressive and self-serving then go live there. I've several close personal friends who lost their business and machinery simply because they didn't bribe the right people.


RE: Internet Freedom
By HotFoot on 3/16/2010 11:41:27 AM , Rating: 2
Heh, I thought China passed Canada a couple years ago. It was a sad day here.

And speaking trading partnership... what exactly does China buy from Canada/U.S. besides raw materials for making all the stuff they sell us?


RE: Internet Freedom
By rudolphna on 3/16/2010 12:35:06 PM , Rating: 2
Cars, electronics, building materials, software.... Canada buys alot of things from the US.


RE: Internet Freedom
By HotFoot on 3/16/2010 2:20:23 PM , Rating: 2
Of course.

But I was asking what does China buy from Canada/U.S.?


RE: Internet Freedom
By Jalek on 3/16/2010 7:32:26 PM , Rating: 2
They can't buy a lot since they maintain their currency weak against the dollar. It's cheaper to buy with other currencies they're not manipulating against.

The US dollar devaluation has hurt them, they've been paying more for materials and have claimed to have stopped tying their exchange rate to it.

We'll see if WalMart prices start going up...


RE: Internet Freedom
By SPOOFE on 3/16/2010 1:02:55 PM , Rating: 1
quote:
Why does US not have a problem with China having nukes and ICBMs?

We DO. The problem with any country having nukes is that once in possession, they don't go away. You don't just STOP having nukes. You either maintain them forever and hope you never have to use them, or you use them, or you sell them. Unstable countries or unstable situations are more likely to see the last two options utilized.

It's less troublesome with China than Iran or North Korea because, well, it's more feasible to stop someone from getting nukes than it is to stop them having nukes. Further, China has been more stable than the others, has more money (and thus wouldn't feel the fiscal need to sell off some warheads), and has a lot to lose in a war (and thus wouldn't feel the need to rattle sabres with an opponent in which nukes would be an option). In theory, of course. It's not a nice situation, but it's also a situation that we can't do all that much about without causing potentially worse situations.


RE: Internet Freedom
By Penti on 3/16/2010 3:04:49 PM , Rating: 1
Retarded arguments. Their conflict with ROC (Taiwan), their war with the US (Korea), other early conflicts.

Israel actually helped a "bad" country getting nukes and ballistic missiles, South Africa would have as Israel has today ICBMs if the program where continued. They never had to face any consequences. The world didn't do much against the Khan network who actually sold components for nuclear programs and bombs.

India gets rewarded for their crime today, while with China theres no conflict as it's one of the recognized nuclear powers in the NPT. US established relations with them in 73 and have threated them as good friends since and most of the world have good relations with them since 50-60 years. Simply the diplomatic relations is important in this question. US has none with DPRK. US has no conflicts with China besides in your heads, it's a friendly country in all practical and real matters. Of course things are trickier with a country where you have no legit relations at all and people who are even suspected of selling technology which might have ended up in some of the sanctions countries are prosecuted. But every country isn't North Korea. And the DPRK wouldn't sell any nuclear warheads, they would be their national pride if ever incorporated into the military. You wouldn't sell your countries most important defense. They have already made medium distance nuclear weapons carriers though, thats what Pakistan is using. It's not like the DPRK can make any more plutonium either, the world would have plenty of time to observe a HEU buildup. The only real problem is if the country collapses, as nobody and I mean nobody wants any Korean refugees, US and western European countries mostly refuses to give asylum to them, leaving them in crowded detentions centers in Thailand. Where they even die waiting. DPRK is a broken country but it isn't a unstable country, their ballistic missile buyers Pakistan is far more unstable internally. It's a country that has actually sold nuclear tech to several countries. And obtained them illegally. If anybody will use nuclear weapons again it will be the none recognized de facto nuclear states that the western world has accepted. They have far more reasons to reflect power. DPRK excluded, it's not really weaponized there yet.


RE: Internet Freedom
By zozzlhandler on 3/16/2010 4:34:44 PM , Rating: 2
I really don't understand your post. You sound like someone yelling and trying to drown out the opposition, which is a curious accomplishment for writing.

To my knowledge, there aren't currently any refugees from Korea. North Koreans who manage to escape (very few) are welcomed in South Korea.

If anyone wonders why we don't have diplomatic relations with DPRK, you might consider their extreme attitude. I have not seen recent examples of their postage stamps, but an old one depicted a bunch of soldiers bayoneting a figure on the ground and the inscription "throughout the world let us kill all americans and tear them into pieces".

China has its problems, but they are nowhere near as extreme as that.


RE: Internet Freedom
By ChugokuOtaku on 3/17/2010 9:43:14 AM , Rating: 2
If I'm not mistaken, there's a small list of countries which have given up their nuclear stockpile.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_nations#State...

Would you make the daring assumption that no other country has a problem with the US having nuclear weapons? What are the chances that America would ever engage in full nuclear disarmament? Of course, you're gonna say why the hell should we disarm if others don't? Likewise, that's the same answer for anyone else, even the ones who don't have them.

The possession of nuclear weapons is a nuclear deterrent in itself. Most countries indeed have never used them against others, other than the US of course. It makes perfect sense that every country would logically try to prevent other countries, especially non-allied nations from obtaining nuclear weapons, but don't try to make the argument that other countries are somehow unjustified in their pursuit of nuclear weapons, signatories to the NNPT or not.

The US, along with other permanent members of the UN Security Council already have nuclear weapons, so the only thing it can do is prevent other countries from obtaining them, and make sure the ones which are already in possession of them aren't hostile, where as other countries don't have such benefits, and will still engage in such futile attempts to obtain them, since the West never adopted a No-First-Use policy.


Not sure
By Desslok on 3/16/2010 10:17:06 AM , Rating: 2
I am not sure about you guys but if I saw a bunch of Iranian soldiers coming at me with flags stuck in the barrels of their weapons I would be terrified!




RE: Not sure
By Looey on 3/16/2010 10:54:54 AM , Rating: 2
Besides needing a shave and their eyebrows trimmed, I don't think the Iranian forces would look very scary to a Predator. They would be ready to go on a scary movie or Halloween though without changing a thing.


RE: Not sure
By DigitalFreak on 3/16/2010 9:03:17 PM , Rating: 3
Dirka dirka!


RE: Not sure
By Aloonatic on 3/16/2010 11:05:14 AM , Rating: 2
If you think that they are scary, try this lot...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4DZQhfrl5Y

Be afraid, be very afraid, they're coming for you...


RE: Not sure
By Desslok on 3/16/2010 11:31:44 AM , Rating: 2
I wonder how that pink works with their camo gear?


Iranian claims
By jfelano on 3/16/2010 9:32:46 AM , Rating: 5
Iran claims a lot of things. Ahmadinejad's nose grows larger every day. He lies to his people, they don't know the truth. The one's that do are jailed and beaten.

Next on the "to do" list: Iran




RE: Iranian claims
By jonmcc33 on 3/16/2010 12:16:52 PM , Rating: 2
I agree. Iran also thinks that the Holocaust and 9/11 never happened. Not sure if I would believe a single word from them.


OMG!!! Anandtech is...
By Marlin1975 on 3/16/2010 8:16:26 AM , Rating: 2
Anandtech is on the CIA's funded list? Who knew, besides Iran... and Mel Gibson. ;)




I don't suppose
By VultureTX on 3/16/2010 11:17:55 AM , Rating: 2
we could actually arrest these Iranian hackers since I doubt those servers were hosted in Iran.
Iran openly claims credit and only a few Iranian government people have actual diplomatic immunity. Or maybe as a lark the ICJ could issue a bench warrant in order to protect free speech. That would at least be good for a laugh.




For real...?
By masamasa on 3/19/2010 2:52:22 PM , Rating: 2
Does anyone actually take Iran seriously? Aside from the fact that radical terrorists are a bunch of fruitcakes and a danger to anyone on this planet, who really cares what Iran claims. They are up there with North Korea for top spot on the all-time how low can you go country list.




so...
By swizeus on 3/16/10, Rating: 0
"Nowadays, security guys break the Mac every single day. Every single day, they come out with a total exploit, your machine can be taken over totally. I dare anybody to do that once a month on the Windows machine." -- Bill Gates











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