Monday, August 22, 2011

Libya starts to reconnect to net

Libya's internet connections appear to be slowly coming back online after a six-month blackout.

The state-run internet service provider (ISP) carried a message on its website that said: "Libya, one tribe".

However, local people have reported patchy reliability with connections coming and going.

Internet traffic in Libya dropped to almost nothing in early March when Colonel Gaddafi's government pulled the plug in an attempt to suppress dissent.

With Tripoli under siege, and the rebels reportedly gaining the upper hand, the authorities' stranglehold on net connections appeared to be loosening.

Both Google's web analytics and Akamai's net monitoring service showed a spike in traffic coming from the country early on 22 August.

Akamai's director of market intelligence, David Belson, said that internet activity had increased almost 500%, although it had declined again later in the day.

Writing on the blog of internet intelligence firm Renesys, chief technology officer James Cowie said that Libya's Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) routing appeared to have been taken down briefly, effectively making the country's internal networks disappear from the internet.

The BGPs were later restored, although local ADSL broadband connections then became unavailable, wrote Mr Cowie.

Web monitoring companies conceded that it was difficult to know exactly what was going on inside the country to make the internet connections sporadically available.

However, it appeared that Libyans were making use of their newly restored connectivity - when available - to chronicle fast-moving events inside the country.

Groups such as the Libya Youth Movement posted Twitter messages giving regular updates on attempts to capture Colonel Gaddafi's compound.



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Ex-Wikileaks man 'deleted files'

A former Wikileaks spokesman claims to have deleted thousands of unpublished files that had been passed to the whistleblowing site.

Daniel Domscheit-Berg told the German Newspaper Der Spiegel that the documents included a copy of the complete US no-fly list.

He said he had "shredded" them to avoid their sources being compromised.

Mr Domscheit-Berg previously worked alongside Julian Assange until the pair had a high profile falling-out.

It is understood that he took the files off Wikileaks' servers at the time of his departure.

Wikileaks confirmed the claims on its Twitter feed, saying: "We can confirm that the DDB claimed destroyed data included a copy of the entire US no-fly list."

The list contains the names of individuals who are banned from boarding planes in the United States or bound for the US, based on suspected terrorist links or other security concerns.

Wikileaks' statement went on to state that Mr Domscheit-Berg had also deleted 5 gigabytes of data relating to Bank of America, the internal communications of 20 neo-Nazi organisations and US intercept information for "over a hundred internet companies."

Mr Domscheit-Berg has not confirmed those additional claims.

A statement, attributed to Julian Assange, accused the former volunteer of sabotage and attempted blackmail.

Personality clash

Daniel Domscheit-Berg worked with Wikileaks as a spokesman during 2010. Towards the end of the year, he left the organisation.

He subsequently published a book about his experiences in which he claims to have clashed with Mr Assange over his idiosyncratic running of Wikileaks.

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Daniel Domscheit-Berg spoke to the BBC's Panorama programme in February 2011

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In particular, he claims to have urged the founder to step back from his public role amid accusations of sexual misconduct.

In an interview with the BBC's Panorama programme, Mr Domscheit-Berg said he "felt that [Wikileaks] was crumbling apart because [Julian Assange] was so damn ignorant".

He also accused Mr Assange of "behaving like a child clutching on his toy."

After his departure from Wikileaks, Mr Domscheit-Berg set up a rival whistle-blowing site called the OpenLeaks project.



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Japanese iPhone gets quake alert

Japanese iPhone users will get the option to receive earthquake alerts under the next version of Apple's iOS operating system.

9to5Mac reports that the feature will be added to the device's notification centre in iOS 5, which is expected to be released in September.

Japan has a sophisticated early warning system which collects readings from more than 1,000 seismic sensors.

More than 16,000 people died in the 2011 quake and subsequent tsunami.

Earthquake warnings are typically issued through radio, television and text message under the Area Mail Disaster Information Service.

For SMS, the system works by sending out a mass cell broadcast (SMS-CB) to all handsets in a designated area.

3G cellphones are compelled by Japanese law to include SMS-CB technology. However, many foreign-made phones do not currently support it.

The message accompanying Apple's new feature reads: "The earthquake early warning/alert. When the setting is on, your battery life may be reduced."

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs sent an email to Japanese employees immediately after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami offering help and support if they or their families were affected by the disaster.



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