Anonymous Iran

Cthulhu

Myself and some others are trying to put together a system of communication for the Iranian protesters to use to communicate between each other and broadcast in a way that's unblockable.

The basic premise basically involves two seperate halves:

The first half is the backbone, where we have a lot of technology related things. Jabber servers that you can connect to as a tor hidden server, websites, a forum, irc channel, whatever. Basically, a place where the information can be sent to, and sent from, in a way that can be vetted for accuracy.

The other half is the main distribution service. Shotgunned SMS to the entire Iranian nation so that no one can be singled out, prerecorded messages sent to people over the phone, a short wave radio network, etc. Information gets passed down from the backbone, and then distributed over this, and then finally to the everyday protester fighting for his or her rights.

We want to be able to bring up two new means of communication for every one that they block. If we can set this up in a sustainable way, that makes it impractical if not outright impossible to stem the flow of information, it can solve one of the biggest issues posed by the protesting and any possible revolutionary measures: Organized communication.

You have to take into account that with internet access being unreliable at best, simple websites and proxies are not going to be able to reach everyone. But by the same token, lower tech measures are also more easily compromised. We've got to figure out a way to organize this so that it can operate even with the assumption that parts of it are being listened in on, and in the case of things like the short wave radio, even having false info broadcasted.

irc.anonnet.org #iran.hydra
#iran.hydra - WebIRC - AnonNet

Most of the discussion so far is being done over IRC, but we'll definitely be looking at this thread. Anyone who wants to help, please join. Any ideas - even bad ones - can help us figure things out, and people might see flaws in our logic that we've missed.

Noman

Make a Firefox plugin that lets a link refer to an eMule identifier, so that you can browse the web via filesharing, without having to connect to the original server. Web pages with no server-side content can then be shared over local networks. You might need to make it operate over port 25 or 80; otherwise, the govt can just block eMule's ports.

A simpler solution is just to invent some keywords to put into filenames that you want to distribute, like "iran protest 090623" and distribute them on eMule. Note eMule will not find "protests" if you ask for "protest".

Unregistered

You do realize that all SMS messages are monitored by the government? This is a known fact. Also, I wouldn't put it past them to bug phones.

anon.il

In that case, how would you countermeasure a bugged phone?

Cthulhu

Right. Which is why you shotgun it to every number in the Iranian range. The point isn't always to hide the information from the government - they'll learn even if you only have word of mouth that there's a protest at freedom square at 5pm

The point is making sure everyone else knows too.

Unregistered

I love that running a TOR exit node gets me K-Lined from the anon IRC servers...

Brilliant.

Cthulhu

Looks like this got moved. Again. The project is about far more than just staying anonymous in Iran. That's just the very base of it. In fact, large parts of it would require a lack of anonymity.


Ironically, since I was just railing against it, the first thing to show from Project Hydra is a tool that allows anonymous encrypted connections to a jabber server acting as a gateway to Yahoo, AIM, MSN, etc. It works through tor hidden service, to the connect between the user and the server is completely encrypted, end to end.

We've teamed up with ProtesterHelp to set it set up that confirmed news and information can also be passed along globally to everyone using it as a gateway.

It's available as a portable app style package, weighing in at a bit under 6 megs. Once we finish some testing, it should be available on torrents. In the mean time, if you're someone in Iran who needs access to an instant messenger, or in a position to get it to someone who does, please send me a PM or contact me on IRC.

Unregistered

watch the video here: Our Observer in Tehran lifts the lid on Web censorship | The Observers

Unregistered

eventually this will have to solved. It seems like a physical task, replacing cell technology in Iran. Phones should be soft upgraded to a protocol that defeats the system
the Iranian government owns(nokia)??
are we looking at waiting for bricked phones to be replaced with newer phones that protect our personal security? Where is Obamas new cyber privacy czar? Put these things on the top of the adgenda!

I love this thread.

BadMojo

or speak Navajo