Bahrain Activists Battered By IP Tracking Attacks 48
An anonymous reader writes "Having been targeted by malware in the past, anti-government protesters in Bahrain are now being hit hard by IP tracking attacks, according to a researcher. Bill Marczak, of Bahrain Watch and Citizen Lab, who is putting together a report on the attacks, said it appeared Bahrain officials had been masquerading as fake activists, sending obfuscated URLs to targets to learn their IP address. The next step is to take the IP address and the time of the click to the relevant ISP to find out who the user is. Then all sorts of things can happen. 'People who have clicked on these links have suffered various types of consequences ranging from having their houses raided and being charged for saying insulting things about the king on Twitter, or losing their jobs,' says Marczak. 'It looks like, from our investigation so far, in one case, the government did lock up the wrong person.'"
These protestors are ignored by the West (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Scary because it's so effective (Score:4, Interesting)
These actions are never about the dissidents they find. It's always about making an example of someone. It doesn't even have to be a real person, as long as the coverage is public enough and people believe it.
The hypocrisy of US (Score:2, Interesting)
The Monarchy of Bahrain, has again and again, committed crimes against the civil population. Unlike other Arab nations, little or nothing is said in corporate media or by the US Gov. officials, simply because the Bahrain monarchy is an "ally" that allows an US military base in their soil.
The last time a movement not too different to the Egyptians and Tunisians (plaza included); was dealt by bringing Saudi (foreign) military troops against the population. That monarchy further proceeded to demolish the place and built a road on it, so that the symbol was never more.
"America", of course, turns a blind eye...