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Title: Iran Is Going Offline To Prevent Purported Israeli Cyberattacks

Link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/06/18/0059...

In response to escalating tensions with Israel, Iran has begun throttling
internet access, with plans to disconnect from the global internet entirely
to prevent Israeli cyberattacks. The Iranian government also urges citizens
to delete WhatsApp -- one of the country's most popular messaging platforms --
 claiming without evidence that the Meta-owned app has been weaponed by
Israel to spy on its users. (WhatsApp vehemently denied those claims in a
statement to the Associated Press.) Telegram is also said to be blocked as
well. The Verge reports: The announcements come amidst the escalating war
between Iran and Israel, which broke out after Israel attacked the country on
June 12th, and a rise in reported internet outages. Civilians have claimed
that they've been unable to access basic but critical telecommunications
services, such as messaging apps, maps, and sometimes the internet itself.
Cloudflare reported that two major Iranian cellular carriers effectively went
offline on Tuesday, and The New York Times reports that even VPNs, which
Iranians frequently use to access banned sites like Facebook and Instagram,
have become increasingly harder to access. [...] Israel's role in the cyber
outages has not been officially confirmed, but independent analysts at
NetBlocks noticed a significant reduction of internet traffic originating
from Iran on Tuesday, starting at 5:30 PM local time. According to Tasnim, a
news network affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Iranians will
still have access to the country's state-operated national internet service,
though two Iranian officials told the Times that the internal bandwidth could
be reduced by up to 80 percent.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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