The second document, produced during a proposed deal with a Spanish telecom contractor, is an English-language manual that documents many of the same SIAM capabilities. Using the tools outlined in this manual could not only lead to mass surveillance and violations of privacy it can also easily be used to identify the location of protesters who are literally risking their lives to fight for their basic rights.. Referred to within SIAM as Force2GNumber, the command allows a cellular carrier to kick a given phone off substantially faster, more secure 3G and 4G networks and onto an obsolete and extremely vulnerable 2G connection. While the police claim Amini died from a heart attack, her family and protesters insist she was beaten to death by the police. Many people worry that the government can track them with their always-with-them smartphones, which they cant live without. GeoLocation divisions are divided into two fields, Black List and Gray List. In the past few weeks, many Iranians who use social media say they have gotten the same warnings to stay away from protests and online interactions with anti-revolutionary government opponents. CRA has defined rules and regulations to provide direct access to mobile operators system, and SIAM is a means to this end, he said. Iranian residents regard reduced internet access on mobile devices during protests as an abrupt drop of service that makes smartphone usage difficult, if not impossible, at times when such a device could be critical. How Iran is manipulating the online narrative to cover up its violent The lack of clarity about what technological powers are held by the Iranian government one of the most opaque and isolated in the world has engendered its own form of quiet terror for prospective dissidents. While current 5G and 4G cellular connections have more robust built-in encryption systems to thwart eavesdropping, the 2G cellular standard, first introduced in 1991, generally does not encrypt data or uses outdated encryption methods that are easy to crack. ), The SIAM documents are drawn from a trove of internal materials from the Iranian cellular carrier Ariantel, including years of email correspondence and a variety of documents shared between Ariantel employees, outside contractors, and Iranian government personnel. If all telecom operators in Iran are required to provide the CRA with SIAM or similar direct access, they could, in effect have complete control over all user mobile communications throughout the country. Legitimate entities - we cannot determine whether an entity is completely green, and that is due to the facts that the Iranian economy is not transparent enough for us. The agencys powers are believed to have grown since then, as the Iranian government has embraced the concept of internet sovereignty as a means of social control. A software program imposed on Iranian mobile companies allows the government direct access. r/NewIran RIP Sheeren Alizada..the 35-year-old Isfahani woman in yesterday mobile video shot & killed by Basiji agents while filming as a passenger in Mazandaran, next to her 7-year-old son & her family in a private car. All Rights Reserved by Manila News-Intelligencer, Iran is Tracking and Controlling Protestors Mobile Phones, The Filipinx American US History course is now available in Seattle Public Schools middle and high schools, Musk Plans to Eliminate Half of Twitter Jobs, China ceases disclosing data analytics for its enormous app market, US Peace Corps volunteers return to PH in 2023, Corinna Vistans approach to bringing Filipino stories to a global audience, Philippine prisons chief charged in journalists killing. Saturday November 5, 2022. 05 Nov 2022 16:18:32 The CRAs OSCS division has a tight working relationship with Irans Ministry of Intelligence, according to the Article 19 investigation. A sticker that reads Iran: The internet is down and they are killing the people is seen on the back of a road sign during a demonstration where hundreds gathered to honor Mahsa Amini and to protest against the Iranian government, on Sept. 23, 2022, in Toronto. Sat, Nov 05, 2022 LOGIN Subscribe for $1 Iran News Update (@IranNewsUpdate1) September 30, 2022 Roundup of Protests on October 21 "Protesters took to the streets on Friday night in several cities, including Tehran, Tabriz, Mahabad, Piranshahr, Isfahan, Kermanshah, Ilam, and others, holding protest rallies and establishing roadblocks to take control of their streets," the MEK wrote. VPNs including some banned by the government have become tremendously popular in Iran as a means of evading domestic web censorship. Be sure. Photo: Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images. A function called Force2GNumber targetsindividual users for slower speeds that are susceptible to surveillance. Iran's police force has said it is investigating a video that shows officers severely beating and shooting an anti-government protester in Tehran. Esguerra Avenue A network downgrade would make it almost impossible to use a modern smartphone, and its calls and texts could be snooped on. MangoDating.com online dating site continues to explore it's way to lead this exciting and evolving category and is looking forward to redefine the way people meet and fall in love. Iran'S Secret Manual for Tracking and Controlling Protesters' Mobile Part of Irans data clampdown may be explained through the use of a system called SIAM, a web program for remotely manipulating cellular connections made available to the Iranian Communications Regulatory Authority. Jon Schwarz. Rashidi said the widespread use of VPNs in Iran represents another vulnerability the SIAM system could exploit. Controlling user communications is a massive violation of basic and fundamental human rights.. Based on CRA rules and regulations all telecom operators must provide CRA direct access to their system for query customers information and change their services via web service, reads an English-language document obtained by The Intercept. Iranians hold rallies to protest against U.S. hegemony Trend News Agency 18:16 4-Nov-22. As in the United States, where the National Security Agency has used government secrecy and legal coercion to turn the telecom and data sectors into intelligence-gathering tools, the Iranian state requires communications networks to provide the government with access via required hardware and software. Rashidi, the internet security expert, said participants in the recent demonstrations, as well as Iranians living near scenes of protest, have reported internet shutdowns targeting their mobile devices that have downgraded phones to 2G access, particularly during the late afternoons and evenings when many demonstrations occur. Part of this effort has included directly assigning Iranian intelligence personnel to government bodies tasked with internet regulation, like the CRA. It can be viewed as a method to appear as if the network is congested and severely limit a users data services, Miller said. Gary Miller on LinkedIn: Iran's Secret Manual for Tracking and According to mobile security research lead at security research organisation, The Citizen Lab, Gary Miller, the evidence seems to explain "many media reports of [Iranian] users having difficulty using their phones while protests occur". Mahsa Amini: Activists accuse Iranian authorities of using Telegram The Iranian government has previously attempted to undermine two-factor authentication, including through malware campaigns targeting dissidents. Internet shutdowns have by now become a familiar tool of political control in the hands of the Iranian government and other states. Gerald Beuchelt on LinkedIn: Hacked Documents: How Iran Can Track and According to the documentation, SIAM provides an easy way to limit a phones data speeds, one of approximately 40 capabilities included in the program. The MEK's new revelation once again shows the large scale of these protests and the regime's brutality. Cleric killed in restive Iranian city, protests rage on The Secret Manual of Iran for Tracking and Controlling Protestors' Mobile Phones The documents provide details about an Iranian government program that allows authorities to monitor and influence people's cellphones. A report on the November 2019 cyber crackdown by Article 19 found that the shutdowns were carried out in large part by officials from the CRA ordering internet service providers to shut down during the unrest. The Article 19 report notes the close personnel relationship between the CRAs OSCS division and Irans Ministry of Intelligence. In Iran, where the autocratic reach of central government leadership touches nearly every aspect of the state without even superficial democratic oversight, the powers afforded by this integration are far greater and far more draconian in consequence. Crows Perform Yet Another Skill Once Thought Distinctively Human Scientific Americans. Irans tight grip on the countrys connection to the global internet has proven an effective tool for suppressing unrest. However, the effect of forcing a user onto the 2G network, more importantly, would essentially render the corresponding real-time application services such as P2P communication, social media, and internet useless.. Iran | All about the protests, its significance, and politics behind it In this way, it is not a surveillance system, but rather a system of repression and control meant to make it harder for users to protest or speak out against the government., SIAM provides the governments Communications Regulatory Authority (Irans telecoms regulator) with complete visibility of the countrys mobile users activities and capacities. These functions can lead to life-and-death situations in a country like Iran, where there is no fair judicial process, no accountability, and we have a huge pattern of violations of peoples rights, said Amir Rashidi, an internet security and digital rights expert focused on Iran. FILE PHOTO: People light a fire during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by the Islamic republic's 'morality police,' in Tehran, Iran, September 21, 2022. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. According to the Iran International report, Hossein Salami, a hardliner, asserted that Saudi Arabia has been attempting to incite the . The latest round of protests in Iran kicked off in mid-September, after a young woman named Mahsa Jina Amini was killed while in the custody of the country's notorious morality police, following her arrest for wearing her mandatory head covering improperly. Iran's Secret Manual for Controlling Protesters' Mobile Phones Security measures like two-factor identification using text messages still depend on telecommunications companies connected to the state. While some of what SIAM does is harmless and necessary for administering any cellular network, Miller, the Citizen Lab researcher, emphasized that the systems scope and the Iranian governments access to it are not.