The Libyan rebellion has expanded into cyberspace, despite the country having limited if any Internet service for months. Throughout everything the popular Bitly URL shortening and analytics service, which uses Libya’s “.ly” top level domain, has been unaffected, but nothing is guaranteed in this developing situation.
In fact, so far the rebellion has had a positive effect on Internet services, which the now-deposed authorities had almost completely shut down in March, 2011. Renesys reported on Sunday, “Something very strange was going on with Tripoli residents’ Internet access. Service was restored suddenly in Tripoli, flickered on and off for a couple of hours, and then died, with the majority of the country’s international BGP routes withdrawn from service for good measure. Today the routes are back in Tripoli, but ADSL service isn’t.”
Additionally, two of the sites most critical to that country’s communications networks were hacked early today. One is the central Domain Registry, and the other is Libya Telecom and Technology. Neither was operationally disrupted; both were defaced (pictured) with a message of defiance against the Gaddafi regime and tagged Electr0n.
Thanks to The Hacker News for the screen grab.
Related Links:
Libya Domain Registry – http://www.nic.ly/
Libya Telecom and Technology – http://www.ltt.ly/
Renesys blog – http://tinyurl.com/3q36nbl
