Crisis as Discipline, NPI Systems Design 2022 | 55 comments (55 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

GIGO: too little, too late G7 sanctions relief (none / 1)

U.S. Treasury Issues Iran General License D-2 to Increase Support for Internet Freedom, 23 Sep [IRONY ALERT]

Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury issued Iran General License (GL) D-2 to increase support for internet freedom in Iran by bringing U.S. sanctions guidance in line with the changes in modern technology since the issuance of Iran GL D-1. On Wednesday, the Iranian government cut off access to the Internet for most of its 80 million citizens to prevent the world from watching its violent crackdown on peaceful protestors sparked by the brutal death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran's Morality Police. While Iran's government is cutting off its people's access to the global internet, the United States is taking action to support the free flow of information and access to fact-based information to the Iranian people. The updated guidance will authorize technology companies to offer the Iranian people more options of secure, outside platforms and services.
[...]
• Adds covered categories of software/services to include social media platforms, collaboration platforms, video conferencing, as well as cloud-based services...
• Provides additional authorization for the services that support the communication tools...
• GL D-2 continues to authorize anti-virus and anti-malware software; anti-tracking software; mobile operating systems ....
• Removes the condition that communications be "personal," which was resulting in compliance burdens for companies ....
• For activity not covered by GL D-2, expands existing case-by-case licensing policy, particularly to allow Iranian developers to create homegrown anti-surveillance and anti-censorship apps, which many Iranian people rely upon to circumvent domestic internet controls.

GENERAL LICENSE D-2
General License with Respect to Certain Services, Software, and Hardware Incident to Communications
(contraband export and re-export)

by Cat on Sat Sep 24th, 2022 at 12:04:45 AM EST
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GIGO: too little, too late G7 sanctions relief (none / 1)

Vice | Revealed: US Military Bought Mass Monitoring Tool That Includes Internet Browsing, Email Data, 21 Sep professional journalists

The "Augury" platform includes highly sensitive network data that Team Cymru, a private company, is selling to the military. "It's everything. There's nothing else to capture except the smell of electricity," one cybersecurity expert said.
[...]
"The network data includes data from over 550 collection points worldwide, to include collection points in Europe, the Middle East, North [and] South America, Africa[,] and Asia, and is updated with at least 100 billion new records each day," a description of the Augury platform in a U.S. government procurement record reviewed by Motherboard reads. It adds that Augury provides access to "petabytes" of current and historical data. ...

by Cat on Sat Sep 24th, 2022 at 03:44:49 AM EST
[ Parent ]

GIGO: too little, too late G7 sanctions relief (none / 1)

Reuters | Musk says he will activate Starlink amid Iran protests, 23 Sep

A U.S. State Department spokesperson later said of Friday's updated license that it was self-executing and that "anyone who meets the criteria outlined in this general license can proceed with their activities without requesting additional permissions."

NY Post | Elon Musk opening up Starlink in Iran , 24 Sep D-2 license

Musk [tweet] replied "Activating Starlink ..." to Secretary of State Antony Blinken tweeting that the US government had taken action to increase internet freedom for Iranians.

(coincidental 25 Sep home streaming, Zero Days (2016)

Al Jazeera | Why Elon Musk's Starlink will not affect protests in Iran, 26 Sep

Citing "security concerns", [IR] authorities have introduced the tightest internet ["cyber"] restrictions across Iran since the November 2019 protests.

a thumb drive

What would Starlink need to work?
In addition to a subscription service [client app], Starlink terminals [any receiver, eg. modem, mobile phone] - hardware that would allow the user to connect [to ICT data transmission?] - are required [nope] to link up.

grey zone law of "cyberwarfare"

It is possible that if Starlink's [NSA] plans do actually move ahead, Iran could turn to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the international communications regulatory body of the United Nations, or other authorities to legally protest the move.
"The issue is that a company probably can't offer services over Iran by violating international regulations. It's possible the Islamic Republic will file a credible complaint against the company and create problems for it," tweeted Jadi, a prominent Iranian developer and tech blogger.

ya think?

Local websites and services have remained online so as not to affect the domestic economy. And some internet providers, especially private companies, have been less affected than others.
But for people using the country's largest [telecom] providers such as MCI [!] and Irancell ["public broadcast service"), using their mobiles [!] and getting the internet at home has become more difficult...

by Cat on Mon Sep 26th, 2022 at 04:58:39 PM EST
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Crisis as Discipline, NPI Systems Design 2022 | 55 comments (55 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)