IS THERE A WAY TO STYMIE IRAN’S DEEP-PACKET SPYING?

Posted on June 23, 2009 by Jeffrey Newman

Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal reported a disturbing story on it’s front page about how the Iranian government is not just blocking web access, it is engaged in “deep-packet inspection” of it’s citizens computers using technology developed by Siemans, AG and Nokia. Deep-Packet inspection is a form of data-mining in which equipment is installed to examine on-line data including emails and internet phone calls as well as messages on social network sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Each digitized packet is taken apart and examined for keywords. There is nothing new about content filtering. Such filters are being used to stop spam, viruses and pornography. However, Iran’s use to find those it believes pose a potential harm to the government is new.

It remains to be seen whether the use of this technology results in the death or imprisonment of those who oppose the present governmental leadership. In the meantime, is there any known technology that can technologically stymie the deep-packet inspection, which could be downloaded by individuals inside Iran in order to protect them? It seems logical that if we can create such intrusive mechanisms, we can create an antidote. If one or more exists, we should spread the word asap.