{"id":3436,"date":"2022-02-16T12:21:04","date_gmt":"2022-02-16T12:21:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/filter.watch\/en\/?p=3436"},"modified":"2022-02-16T14:41:32","modified_gmt":"2022-02-16T14:41:32","slug":"network-monitor-january-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filter.watch\/english\/2022\/02\/16\/network-monitor-january-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Network Monitor \u2013 January 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"

In January, a number of disruptions by the Telecommunication Infrastructure Company (TIC) caused various provinces across Iran to go offline for short periods. Meanwhile, an alleged hacking incident on Iran\u2019s state TV was followed by an internet outage on the internet provider dedicated to the state broadcaster, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB). It\u2019s not clear if the outage was a result of hacking or if it was a step taken to protect the IRIB network.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On January 25 and 26, some TIC users experienced a near total internet shutdown for brief periods. The incident was pre-planned and some users had been informed in advance via text message.\u00a0 During the shutdown, however, some Iran-based sites, apps, and services appeared to largely be online according to some social media users, revealing an advanced local network totally separated from the internet. This bifurcation reaffirms Iran's ability to shutdown international traffic during periods of political unrest and maintenance alike. Something that we already observed during the nationwide internet shutdown in November 2019 and for the first time we are seeing it for more regular disruptions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Regional Outages<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Chahar Mahall and Bakhtiari, Semnan, Ghazvin, Qom, Hamedan, Mazandaran, and Markazi provinces went offline in January. According to information received by Filterwatch from local sources, the disruption was pre-planned by the Telecommunication Infrastructure Company (TIC), and users were <\/span>notified<\/span><\/a> via text messages the day before the disruption took place.<\/span><\/p>\n

In January, two major incidents were observed that caused near total internet shutdowns. In some cases, local internet users reported that they were not able to access the internet and their connection was limited to local network and National Information Network (NIN) services:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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  1. This impacted the provinces of Ilam, Golestan, Yazd, Bushehr, Chahar Mahall and Bakhtiari, Kohgiluyeh and Buyer Ahmad, Kermanshah, East Azarbaijan, and Lorestan from 16 to 18 January.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

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    Among them Chahar Mahall and Bakhtiari province went almost entirely offline from around 10am UTC until 2:30pm UTC on 15 January. <\/span><\/p>\n

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    2. Between 22 to 25 January in the provinces of Mazandaran, Markazi, Semnan, Qazvin, Qom, Hamadan, South Khorasan, Alborz, Sistan and Baluchestan went offline for periods of time.<\/span><\/p>\n

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    Among them, Semnan, Qazvin, Qom, Hamedan, Mazandaran and Markazi went almost entirely offline due to major disruption on the Telecommunication Company of Iran (TCI).<\/span><\/p>\n

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    Based on Filterwatch investigations, the disruption was pre-planned and users were\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0via text messages the day before. <\/span><\/p>\n

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    The text message read: \u201cDear subscriber, following a notification from the Telecommunication\u00a0 Infrastructure Company, there is a possibility of\u00a0 disruption on all internet services between 2am-6am on Wednesday 26 January.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

    According to a <\/span>tweet<\/span><\/a> by an internet user in Iran on 26 January \u201cthe internet was cut off for two hours and then only domestic applications were available (Filimo, Snap, etc.)\u201d\u00a0 but international services such as WhatsApp and Instagram could not be reached.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    However, based on IODA data, the disruption took place between 25 and 26 January on the TCI network.<\/span><\/p>\n

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