Digital ID

HOW OPERATORS USE SANDVINE TO BLOCK INDEPENDENT MEDIA IN EGYPT

Researchers at Qurium Media Foundation published a report that provides insight on how Sandvine DPI performs the blocking, and how it can be detected.

Sandvine has during recent years become infamous for its support to Internet repressive regimes, such as Belarus, Azerbaijan, Egypt, where its DPI equipment is used to block independent media and human rights organizations. This report provides insight on how Sandvine’s equipment performs the blocking, and how it can be detected.

The report, which is a collaboration with the Egyptian citizen journalism platform Al Manassa, proves that Sandvine is being used by at least two providers in the country, state-owned Telecom Egypt and privately owned Orange Egypt.

The report presents two characteristics which can be used to fingerprint the existence of Sandvine equipment in any network. Furthermore, the report confirms that although the Sandvine DPI tears down the majority of connections established to blocked websites, 25% of the traffic goes through the DPI equipment.

Qurium forensics report: How operators use Sandvine to block independent media in Egypt

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, DPI)

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Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.

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