Close to 300 000 unique IP addresses from Iran requested access to google.com using a rogue certificate authority DigiNotar, according to an interim report by security firm, Fox-IT, released. The rogue certificate was finally revoked. Says News Techworld.com
Among those addresses, 99 percent are Iranian IP. In order to inform its users that they may have been victim of a security breach during this period, Google will obtain the list of IP concerned.
Fox-IT added that the e-mail, but also a login cookie, could have been intercepted. The hacker would thus have the ability to log in to Gmail mailboxes and other services from Google.
The high percentage of Iranian addresses suggests that the objective of the hackers was to intercept Iranian private communications in and outside the country. This example stands as a proof of the influence of the internet censorship in Iran.
More recently, according to an article from the International Business Times, Iran would be “planning to restructure its internet connectivity infrastructure” in order to increase the electronic surveillance on domestic use. The government goal would be to monitor the communications between rebels and activists over the internet.
How to bypass internet censorship in Iran?
Using a VPN (what is a VPN?) provides a safe and a private browsing.
A VPN service allows you to surf the web with complete freedom inasmuch as it protects your identity and your data. Thus, your IP-address can be routed to virtual network – among the VPN providers’ different server location - which prevents the government monitoring system to track your identity.
In addition to that, a VPN allows you to access to all blocked websites in Iran.
Best VPN Service for Iran
The most important standard is the speed that the VPN can provide. It’s obvious that the nearest VPN server location will provides you the fastest browsing.
If you’re located in Iran: choose Indian or Israeli VPN servers.
See our comparison engine with all server locations and providers’ offers
In addition to bypass internet censorship, the VPN service also allows to access to geoblocked websites, only reachable by residents. Choosing a VPN provider with UK or US server locations offers you the ability to browse specific websites.
Unblock United States or UK geoblocked websites
Most of the VPN service providers allow you to connect to US or UK servers, in order to browse websites dedicated to their residents.
Hulu, Netflix, Pandora or the BBC websites are reachable with a VPN service.
How to use a VPN Service?
1. Choose a VPN provider
2. Download the software
3. Connect to any server locations
Bottom line
Every year, Iranian internet censorship is going further. Using a VPN service is one of the best way to guard your freedom, to be secure and to protect your privacy. Moreover, most of the VPN provider offer the best speed to browse any website worldwide.
Thank you,
to complete the article, here are a few links to services that can be used to bypass internet filtering in Iran:
How to bypass internet censorship covers a lot of techniques, services and advises on circumvention tools https://www.howtobypassinternetcensorship.org it is also available in farsi but several links appeat to be broken https://www.howtobypassinternetcensorship.org/fa.html
For the chapter about VPN, it is here: http://en.flossmanuals.net/bypassing-censorship/ch025_what-is-vpn/
Sabznameh allows Iranians in Iran to receive contents from filtered websites through a rss to email service. If you are in Iran, just write an email to help@sabznameh.com and/or info@sabznameh.com I can’t remember which one. They have more than 30 publications in their service. Among this is http://www.azadcyber.info a news website in Persian about internet filtering, digital security and circumvention tools. Write to azadcyber@sabznameh.com to get the contents if you are in Iran.
Other interesting ressources for persian speakers are:
- Psiphon and their twitter account to get the good links https://twitter.com/PsiphonIran
- Tor and their new Persian blog: https://fa-blog.torproject.org/
- And finally, this Tactical toolbox for internet and mobile security in english: https://security.ngoinabox.org/en and in persian: https://security.ngoinabox.org/fa
Please share on twitter, facebook or in the comments if you have other sources.
If you know people living in Iran, please send them information through email.