With the military war between Israel and Iran raging into its sixth day, a virtual complete shutdown of the internet has hit Iran. This made the researchers and human rights agencies worried about the security of the people in the war-ravaged country.
Internet Traffic Drops 97% Throughout Iran
Iran Plunges Into Digital Darkness: Near-Total Internet Blackout Amid Rising
KHOSHIRAN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images
Iran is currently witnessing “a near-total national internet blackout,” NetBlocks, a worldwide internet monitoring company, reported. The view was shared by other monitoring groups, such as Internet Outbreak Detection and Analysis (IODA) and Cloudflare, which collectively recorded an unprecedented decline in Iranian connectivity starting Wednesday.
David Belson, Cloudflare’s Head of Data Insight, verified that Iranian internet traffic has fallen about 97% since the same period last week. The sudden drop is reflected in Cloudflare’s real-time internet monitoring data, indicating that Iranian users are now severely isolated from global digital communications.
“We can only see that the traffic dropped — the data doesn’t tell us why it dropped,” Belson told TechCrunch.
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Cyberattacks and War Driving the Blackout
Although the exact explanation for the internet shutdown has not yet determined as of writing, the blackout occurred alongside a series of cyberattacks against key Iranian institutions, such as a large bank and a cryptocurrency exchange. These infiltrations were reported to have been traced to Israeli operations, with Iranian state media IRIB announcing that Israel had initiated a “massive cyber war” against the nation.
In retaliation, Iranian officials are said to have closed off domestic internet access in an attempt to confine the attacks and stifle the dissemination of information about military action and domestic unrest.
This is Iran’s second countrywide blackout in only two days, but it is being termed by analysts as “more severe” than the previous one.
Several Iranian ISPs are now down, suggested Kentik Director of Internet Analysis Doug Madory, which would imply government-sponsored network throttling or intentional infrastructure suppression.
With the internet blackout, it’s now hard for civilians to inform other people about the real happening in the country. Just in time, the whole world’s watching, they can’t do anything except wait for a miracle for the internet to be stable.
A Pattern of Digital Suppression
Iran has previously weaponized internet shutdowns to manage public dialogue amidst times of unrest, such as protests and political repression.
To date, this latest outage is one of the largest digital shutdowns Iran has experienced, only serving to heighten concerns that the regime is using digital isolation more and more as a tactic of war.
The frontlines now stretch far beyond land and aerial means. It’s also being waged in the dark side of cyberspace.
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