Posted on 01/26/2011 3:11:46 PM PST by fight_truth_decay
It was on Christmas Day that Facebook's Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan first noticed strange things going on in Tunisia. Reports started to trickle in that political-protest pages were being hacked. "We were getting anecdotal reports saying, 'It looks like someone logged into my account and deleted it,'" Sullivan said.
For Tunisians, it was another run-in with Ammar, the nickname they've given to the authorities that censor the country's Internet. They'd come to expect it.
In the days after the holiday, Sullivan's security team started to take a closer look at the data, but it wasn't entirely clear what was happening. In the US, they could look to see if different IP addresses, which identify particular nodes on the network, were accessing the same account. But in Tunisia, the addresses are commonly reassigned. The evidence that accounts were being hacked remained anecdotal. Facebook's security team couldn't prove something was wrong in the data. It wasn't until after the new year that the shocking truth emerged:
Ammar was in the process of stealing an entire country's worth of passwords.
* * * more
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
"It basically went from being a waste of time or procrastination tool, to my go-to source on up-to-date information," Abida wrote in a Facebook message to me. "My mom is back in Tunisia on her own, and my Tunisian network on Facebook was posting the most up-to-date info on what was happening on the ground. It was stuff the major media channels weren't reporting, such as numbers to call to reach the military and what was happening when in what specific neighborhood."
Revolution Ping
... which is exactly the reason why I need a kill switch on the Internet
Wow, just... wow. Thank you for the ping, what a fascinating read....
Interpol issued an arrest warrant Ben Ali
Regime internet hacking in Tunisia
"Tor protects you by bouncing your communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world: it prevents somebody watching your Internet connection from learning what sites you visit, and it prevents the sites you visit from learning your physical location..."
But is Hezbollah taking full advantage of these youth attended revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt and Lebanon where there is major unemployment, government corruption...
Curfew eased as of today, January 26, 2011 26/01/2011 VIA PORTAL Tunisia
National Unity Government (NUG) Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi said that Tunisia entered a decisive turn-point which is a clear-cut and true departure from the past, as martyrs fell for the sake of dignity and liberty, property and rights of so many citizens who have been spoiled as a result of fraud and excesses under the old regime
Internet ‘kill switch’ bill will return
snippet..
“A controversial bill handing President Obama power over privately owned computer systems during a “national cyberemergency,” and prohibiting any review by the court system, will return this year.”
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20029282-281.html
Tunisians had been riveted by revelations of US views of the Ben Ali regime in leaked WikiLeaks cables last month.
Where did they go then?
the Kingdom..
Saudi Arabia confirmed that the former Tunisian president, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, and his family arrived in the Kingdom early on Saturday morning to stay for an unspecified period of time.
A statement released by the official Saudi Press Agency said that Kingdom of Saudi Arabia understands the exceptional circumstances experienced by the people of Tunisia and that the Kingdom welcomes the arrival of the President Zine al-Abidine and his family.
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