As the Syrian government shuts off the nation's Internet services, global hacking network Anonymous said it will shut down the Syrian government websites around the world. "When your government shuts down the Internet, shut down your government," Anonymous Egypt said.
Although the government claimed "terrorists" had attacked Internet lines, opposition leaders and Web security analysts such as CloudFlare said it was an act by the government to silence the anti-government fighters.
The rebels opposing President Bashar al-Assad use Internet to reach out to the world by publishing footage of aerial strikes and graphic images of civilian casualties. Rebels also depend heavily on social media to communicate with fellow fighters and journalists in the absence of a free press in the country.
Anonymous said the group will remove all web assets belonging to the Syrian government that are outside Syria starting with embassies. The hacker collective said the Syrian government move to cut off the internet services is not a damage that can be easily or quickly repaired.
"Beginning at 9:00 PM ET USA Anonymous will begin removing from the Internet all web assets belonging to the Assad regime that are NOT hosted in Syria. We will begin with the websites and servers belonging to ALL Syrian Embassies abroad, which we will begin systematically removing from the Internet tonight," the group said. "By turning off the Internet in Syria, the butcher Assad has shown that the time has come for Anonymous to remove the last vestiges of his evil government from the Internet."
Anonymous attacked U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, Britain's Serious Organised Crime Agency in the recent past and the Israeli government website during its Gaza offensive.
Meanwhile web security firm CloudFlare said it is highly unlikely that the opposition disconnected the Internet lines. "While we cannot know for sure, our network team estimates that Syria likely has a small number of edge routers.
All the edge routers are controlled by Syrian Telecommunications. The systematic way in which routes were withdrawn suggests that this was done through updates in router configurations, not through a physical failure or cable cut," CloudFlare CEO Matthew Prince wrote in a blog post.
