An inside look at how Syrian cyber-rebels are using technology to get around state censorship. Presented by Dlshad Othman (Syria), an activist and IT engineer providing Syrians with digital security tools at ISOC-DC's event for the State Department's Internet Freedom Fellows, CENSORSHIP 2020: The Future of Free Speech Online, at Georgetown University on June 25, 2012

1. THE INTERNET WITH SYRIAN FLAVOR !
Practices of the Syrian regime against the freedom of the
Internet
Dlshad Othman

2. Introduction
Public internet access was introduced in Syria in 2000. Since then, the
Syrian government has continuously tried to control its access. Article 38
of the Syrian Constitution states that "every citizen has the right to
express his opinion freely and openly in speech, writing, and through all
other means of expression and to participate in supervision and
constructive criticism to ensure the safety of domestic and nationalist
structure and strengthens the socialist system and the state guarantees
the freedom of the press, printing and publication according to law."

3. Using the internet for Human Rights activities
Syrian opposition and civil society organizations use Internet-based
communication systems as their main way to communicate, which can
compromise their ability to effectively communicate between parties. In
fact, recently government authorities presented copies of personal emails
to detained protesters, suggesting that such surveillance is widespread.
In addition, there are reports that the Syrian government has recently
attempted to procure high-end filtering and surveillance systems such as
Bluecoat and NetAPP.

4. Practices – Suspends the internet service
1- Dara’a City for more than 40 days – March , April 2011.
2- Homs City , for more than 25 days in one time .
3- Doma City , 29-1-2012 to 24-3-2012
3- Every Thursday and Friday in these areas ,Damascus countryside ,
Homs , Hama , Aleppo countryside , and Kamishli
4- All of Syria become without internet over 3G for 1 week , June 2012
5- Many reports for Cases of certain cities
Image from Google Transparency Report

5. Practices – SURVEILLANCE
1- To have an Internet subscription in Syria ( 3G – ADSL) you need to sign
a contract and providing a copy from your ID and your fingerprint.
2- intelligence have a powers to enter and decision-making in the ISPs
3- BlueCoat SG9000
4- Utimaco
5- Area Spa
6- Ericsson
7- December 2011 , Sophos said the deal with Syria had been terminated
8- February 2012 leaked document from the Syrian Department of
Communications , talking about Terminate the contract with Italian
company Area SPA
9- Twitter Hashtag (#Syria) flooding months of Revolution

6. Practices – Attacks
1- Syrian Electronic Army
2- DDOS Attacks www.vdc-sy.org
3- Syrian Trojans
4- Facebook flood
5- Internet Cafes Activities
6- DNS forwarding
7- Fake SSL certificate, At 1 May 2011 , May 2012 for Facebook..etc
8- Confiscation of equipment – SCM team
9- Blocking Tor
10- DPI: At 14 April 2012 , over all the Syrian ISPs , VPN L2TP Stopped
working , According to bloomberg , Utimaco AG and Qosmos SA supplied
a deep-packet inspection technology.
11- Blcok SSL – 443 for more than 4 hours

7. CENSORSHIP
The Syrian government has expanded the blocking of website widely since 2007,
with most all online social networks and blogging sites blocked from 2007 until the
end of 2011. According to Taming the Internet, a report released by SCM, blocked
websites presently include:
35 Kurdish sites
28 opposition political sites
25 Lebanese sites
21 media sites
13 Islamic sites
9 proxy server sites
9 cultural sites
7 press-related sites
6 online social networking sites
5 human rights organizations sites
3 blogging sites

8. CENSORSHIP
- The Arabic Wikipedia was blocked from 30 April 2008 until 12 February 2009.
And it has been blocked again after a while.
- February 2011 Syria removed the block over YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.
- May 2011 Syria Blocked Flash video Streaming to disable youtube network.
- Beginning in 2011, the government start blocking VPN connections (like
OpenVPN or other PPTP services), which were frequently used by parties under
surveillance to evade detection. In response, many Syrians have begun using
customized software proxy services like L2TP, VPN over SSH, and TOR.
- Keywords

9. Bloggers
Several Syrian bloggers and writers were arrested because of what they
published on the web pages like :
• Osama Mousa an Assyrian - Syrian blogger and human rights activist ,
he had been arrested at 27/2/2008 because of his Articles on his blog.
• Tal Dosr al-Mallohi is a Syrian blogger from Homs, Tal was taken from
her home by officers of one of the security offices in Syria because she
has written poems about Palestine and social commentaries on her
blog.
• Karim Arbaji a blogger arrested at 2007 by the Syrian Secret Police
who was sentenced to three years in prison for publishing information
against the national morale.
• Razan Ghazzawi Syrian Bloggers she had been arrested for 2 times.
• Husain Garrier Syrian Bloggers he had been arrested for 2 times and
he still in the jail

10. Links

11. Links

12. Links
Blocking, T. R. (2008, September 15). AHEWAR. Retrieved from http://www.ahewar.org/debat/show.art.asp?aid=147154
Electronic Frontier Foundation. (2012, February 21). Retrieved from Spy Tech Companies & Their Authoritarian Customers, Part II:
Trovicor and Area SpA: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/02/spy-tech-companies-their-authoritarian-customers-part-ii-trovicor-
and-area-spa
Syria News/Hacktivist. (n.d.). Law and Combating Cybercrime. Retrieved from Syria News/Hacktivist:
https://syria.hacktivist.me/?p=52
Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression. (2008, May 05). Taming the Internet Report. Retrieved from SCM:
http://scm.bz/?page=category&category_id=36&lang=ar
Statement about Osama Mousa
http://www.zahrira.net/?p=3901
Hacking the website of Harvard university
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh-POU60WzY
Internet censorship in Syria
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_Syria
British surveillance software linked to Syrian regime
http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2011/12/01/british-software-helped-syrian-regime-crush-dissidents/
Facebook users in Syria targeted by cyber attack
http://www.ameinfo.com/264319.html
The Internet In the Arab World A New Space of Repression?
http://www.anhri.net/en/reports/net2004/syria.shtml
H-P Computers Underpin Syria Surveillance
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-18/hewlett-packard-computers-underpin-syria-electonic-surveillance-
project.html
Syria expands "iron censorship" over Internet
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2008/03/13/oukin-uk-syria-internet-idUKL138353620080313?sp=true

13. Thank you