Syria cut off from globalInternet as civil warrages

Internet connections between Syria
and the outside world were cut off on
Tuesday, according to data from
Google Inc and other global Internet
companies.
Google's Transparency Report pages
showed traffic to Google services
pages from the country, embroiled in
a civil war that has lasted more than
two years, suddenly stopping shortly
before 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT).
The vast majority of websites within
Syria were rendered unreachable as
well, other experts said, as the county
appeared to shut itself off.
"Effectively, the shutdown disconnects
Syria from Internet communication
with the rest of the world. It's unclear
whether Internet communication
within Syria is still available," wrote
Dan Hubbard, chief technology officer
at infrastructure services firm
OpenDNS.
"Although we can't yet comment on
what caused this outage, past
incidents were linked to both
government-ordered shutdowns and
damage to the infrastructure, which
included fiber cuts and power
outages."
Hubbard wrote on an OpenDNS blog
that a similar Internet blackout in
Syria occurred in November and lasted
three days. About 80 Internet
pathways normally are listed by Syrian
providers, but only three were being
advertised to machines searching for
connections late on Tuesday.
The Syrian ambassador could not
immediately be reached for comment.
© Thomson Reuters 2013