Posts Tagged ‘Iran’

Sweden response to propaganda

Sweden launches ‘Psychological Defence Agency’ to counter propaganda from Russia, China and Iran

The new agency is tasked with countering disinformation and boosting the population’s resilience in the face of possible influence operation

https://www.mpf.se/en/

The agency’s main mission is the coordination and development of agencies’ and other actors’ activities within Sweden’s psychological defence.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/3383c0a2-6d94-11ec-a1b8-3009dadbed4f

https://www.forbes.com/sites/emmawoollacott/2022/01/05/sweden-launches-psychological-defense-agency-to-counter-disinformation/

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/01/04/sweden-launches-psychological-defence-agency-counter-complex/

Russia disconnect Internet

Russia ‘successfully tests’ its unplugged internet

24 December 2019

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-50902496

“Increasingly, authoritarian countries which want to control what citizens see are looking at what Iran and China have already done.

“It means people will not have access to dialogue about what is going on in their own country, they will be kept within their own bubble.”

a “sovereign Runet”?

In Iran, the National Information Network allows access to web services while policing all content on the network and limiting external information. It is run by the state-owned Telecommunication Company of Iran.

One of the benefits of effectively turning all internet access into a government-controlled walled garden, is that virtual private networks (VPNs), often used to circumvent blocks, would not work.

Another example of this is the so-called Great Firewall of China. It blocks access to many foreign internet services, which in turn has helped several domestic tech giants establish themselves.

Russia already tech champions of its own, such as Yandex and Mail.Ru, but other local firms might also benefit.

The country plans to create its own Wikipedia and politicians have passed a bill that bans the sale of smartphones that do not have Russian software pre-installed.

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Russia Is Considering An Experiment To Disconnect From The Internet

February 11, 20194:50 PM ET  SASHA INGBER

https://www.npr.org/2019/02/11/693538900/russia-is-considering-an-experiment-to-disconnect-from-the-internet

Russia is considering a plan to temporarily disconnect from the Internet as a way to gauge how the country’s cyberdefenses would fare in the face of foreign aggression, according to Russian media.

It was introduced after the White House published its 2018 National Security Strategy, which attributed cyberattacks on the United States to Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.

Russia’s Communications Ministry also simulated a switching-off exercise of global Internet services in 2014, according to Russian outlet RT.

Russia’s State Duma will meet Tuesday to consider the bill, according to RIA Novosti.

Roskomnadzor has also exerted pressure on Google to remove certain sites on Russian searches.

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told Congress last month that Russia, as well as other foreign actors, will increasingly use cyber operations to “threaten both minds and machines in an expanding number of ways—to steal information, to influence our citizens, or to disrupt critical infrastructure.”

My note: In the past, the US actions prompted other countries to consider the same:
Germanty – https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2014/07/01/privacy-and-surveillance-obama-advisor-john-podesta-every-country-has-a-history-of-going-over-the-line/

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more on cybersecurity in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=cybersecurity

more on surveillance in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=surveillance

History of Syria

Syria: proxy theatre of war

Never in the interests of the ordinary citizen

The Syrian people’s uprising began as a struggle over social and economic conditions, a fight for democracy in place of repression. Now it has been hijacked by regional and global conflicts

Karim Emile Bitar 21 January 2019

https://mondediplo.com/2013/06/02syria

If there is a constant in the history of the countries of the Levant, it is the conflict between the aspirations of their inhabitants for freedom, and the realpolitik that has led to the sacrifice of those aspirations to the geostrategic interests of foreign powers.