TECHNOLOGY | 23.06.2009

Western technology may be helping Iran monitor political dissent

European companies do big business in Iran

Iran may be using Western-supplied technology to control political opponents online amid violent post-election protests. Siemens and Nokia have reportedly supplied Iran with spying technology.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Iranian authorities appear to be using deep packet inspection (DPI) technologies to intercept data on the internet as well as monitor and block Web communications.

Iranians are increasingly posting videos of the clashes on sites like YouTube and are also using social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. This technology has become a means of communication among protestors following the country's controversial presidential election that returned incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power.

The US newspaper says that the government's ability to monitor its citizens was provided, at least in part, by Nokia Siemens Networks. The joint venture was undertaken by German conglomerate Siemens and Finnish cellphone company Nokia in late 2008.

German technology to detect political opponents?

Nokia Siemens Networks spokesman Ben Roome told the newspaper that a "monitoring center" installed within the Iranian government's telecom monopoly was part of a larger contract with Iran that included mobile phone networking technology.

Protestors have been turning to new technologies to communicate

"If you sell networks, you also, intrinsically, sell the capability to intercept any communication that runs over them," Roome said.

The Wall street Journal cautioned, however, that it was not clear whether the equipment was being used specifically by the Iranian authorities for DPI.

Concern about misuse

Up to now, major trading partners like Germany and Italy have been reluctant to impose trade sanctions on Iran. Yet calls continue for the type of deep packet inspection technology used by Iran to be made illegal.

"The internet can be a tool to enhance political communication and participation in a democracy," Ed Black, president and chief executive of the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA), said in a statement. "Or it can become an even more intrusive way for a government to control access to information, spy on its citizens and detect political adversaries.

Iran is an example of why the use of certain technologies, such as deep packet inspection, should be restricted, Black said.

db/AFP/dpa
Editor: Trinity Hartman

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