Iran's Web Spying (Censorship) Aided By Western Technology (Siemens, Nokia)

[kpete]

Source: Wall Street Journal

Iran's Web Spying Aided By Western Technology
European Gear Used in Vast Effort to Monitor Communications


By CHRISTOPHER RHOADS in New York and LORETTA CHAO in Beijing

The Iranian regime has developed, with the assistance of European telecommunications companies, one of the world's most sophisticated mechanisms for controlling and censoring the Internet, allowing it to examine the content of individual online communications on a massive scale.

Interviews with technology experts in Iran and outside the country say Iranian efforts at monitoring Internet information go well beyond blocking access to Web sites or severing Internet connections.

Instead, in confronting the political turmoil that has consumed the country this past week, the Iranian government appears to be engaging in a practice often called deep-packet inspection, which enables authorities to not only block communication but to monitor it to gather information about individuals, as well as alter it for disinformation purposes, according to these experts.

The monitoring capability was provided, at least in part, by a joint venture of Siemens AG, the German conglomerate, and Nokia Corp., the Finnish cellphone company, in the second half of 2008, Ben Roome, a spokesman for the joint venture, confirmed.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124562668777335653.html#mod=rss_whats_news_us

[pattmarty]

1. If the Iranians have this technology, you KNOW the US has it (and been using it).

[boppers]

2. Deep packet inspection is old.

*Very* old. And yes, the US has it, and has been using it.

[sachingupta]

3. Message

Nice, but not to able understand properly.

[951-Riverside]

4. What are you doing sachingupta?

[Tempest]

5. Siemens AG

They loved the Nazis and now they love fascists of a different stripe.

[ohio2007]

6. They also supply China's growing market share

but China gets a free pass...being a developing nation and all.....