Iran has cut off access to the Internet, leaving millions of people without access to e-mail and social networks.

An individual inside the usa showed this morning that Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo electronic mail are not available. Ditto for facebook. up to now, the government has not made any declaration about the carrier interruption.

But cyber-sophisticated Iranians are still able to circumvent the government by using proxy servers over VPN connections.

The interesting thing is that when asked, they deny the fact that all these services are all blocked, an Iranian contacted by CNET said. This individual asked to remain unidentified.

However, the Iranian noted that the regime has cut off the Internet during protests and that the buzz on the streets is that anti-government protests are planned for Saturday. Feb. 11 marks the anniversary of Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution.

Last month the rustic’s knowledge minister informed the Islamic Republic news agency that a firewalled national internet might soon become operational. There used to be no word on whilst the federal government may plan to throw the switch on what essentially could be a limiteless intranet, but it would happen any day. And that prospect has cyber activists in Iran concerned. it could supply the federal government a hand up in its cyber cat-and-mouse fight with opponents.

Right now, if Iran now blocks proxy servers and VPN connections for more than a few days, companies with branches or headquarters in the country are cut off from communicating with fellow employees around the world other than by telephone. That forces the government to open the spigot for everyone. Once the new network goes into effect, ordinary Iranians would wake up to a more censored Internet.

I don’t recognise the infrastructure that they’re going to use but I don’t assume we’ve a way out of that one, said the Iranian person. We have become nearer and nearer to North Korea.