ISP is watching you...

[scratchONtheBOX]

I understand your sympathy with FREEDOM, Black Cluster. But you have to consider also the TRADITIONS, CUSTOMS AND RULES of the location you are on. In my case (that is why I mentioned in the subject), I am currently in the KSA where the RULE applies to all people currently residing or working here.

And I know there are ways of breaking such STRICT RULES if I wanted to, but take it from me, YOU DON'T WANT TO MESS AROUND WITH THE POLICY just to prove you can, there are consequences to such actions, especially here in KSA. And for me, I'd rather not try it until I go to my own land where FREEDOM (in my opinion) exists.

That's my .02 also.

Peace!

Yo!

[scratchONtheBOX]

Does the ISP proxy prevent you from any website you wish to visit?

- Yes! In fact, the ISP & the Gov't. were exercising their RULES even in the materials you read/watch/access from CYBERSPACE.

Like I told you, yes, you can access it for the first time, second, third, but the moment they came across with the logs and review it, expect the site will be inaccessible (even the whole domain/URL they can block if they have to).

BTW, freedom has limits and differs in many views. Consider this way, it’s their territory and they have the right to do such thing. I don’t like this to be a discussion about FREEDOM, RULES, TRADITION or CUSTOMS, just pointing out that there are certain RULES that you may not be familiar of.

FYI.

Yo!

[MrCoffee]

Hey Scratch,

I understand you arent talking about a local, USA based ISP in your stamements. I was just thinking about the level of logging, review and automation that filtering ALL the TRAFFIC from an ENTIRE country would require. Thats quite a piece of work your refering too.

In some area's of the world, I guess big brother is still trying to "protect" it's citizens from being able to make up thier own minds on what is acceptable and what is not. I read somewhere that some 80% of the internet traffic is SPAM, so I guess some 80% of the traffic in KSA is filtering....



It does pose some interesting questions about exactly how the filtering is done and by whom.

Cheers!

[scratchONtheBOX]

so I guess some 80% of the traffic in KSA is filtering....

- to give you an idea, well I just read it now, since I am curious too, the way they do it (the filtering thing) is actually documented. Read some...

As with most filtering regimes, whether implemented at the client, ISP, or government level, no list is made available of the sites blocked... ...Taken as a whole, the Saudi government's stated blocking criteria are quite broad, making it difficult to assess whether the blocking of a given site is consistent with the criteria. However, a look at the list beyond sexually explicit content yields some insight into the particular areas the Saudi government appears to find most sensitive.

source - http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/filtering/saudiarabia/

I am currently searching more recent info about it.

*
OK, here is a more better source:

Internet Filtering in Saudi Arabia in 2004
- http://www.opennetinitiative.net/studies/saudi/

How they filter it and who filters it
- http://www.isu.net.sa/saudi-internet...-mechanism.htm
- http://www.isu.net.sa/index.htm

And finally, here is the filter tool they use - SMARTFILTER
- http://www.securecomputing.com/index.cfm?skey=85
*



Yo!

[Black Cluster]

Hi scratchONtheBOX,

N.B: I am not talking about filtering or preventing traffic to Porno or Highly-rated websites, becuase this is another subject altogether.

Well, Have you ever heard about tradition or custom prevents its fellowers from gaining knowledge???? Or even from having a wider view at the world or what's going on around you??? I think Not.

FREEDOM, RULES, TRADITION or CUSTOMS are all there to make the human being happier with thier life {Under the belt of thier own societies}.
A rule, tradition or custom that prevent a human being from gaining knowledge would rather be NONSENSE, and I won't bother following it.... And these customs would be taken place in order to make those people totally shielded and close-mided.. to keep them under the tyrannical fist {IRON-FIST}.

I didn't hear about any socity that prevent its members to gain knowledge. did you????

IMHO, gaining knowledge should know no bounds and limitations or even traditions.... The best should be followed.....

I hope you did get my point Scratch....

Cheers

[scratchONtheBOX]

Black Cluster,

I understand your point fair enough.

That's why soon, I'm going back to my country and experience the best that knowledge can offer, without the boundaries of TRADITION/CUSTOM.

Cheers!

Yo!

[Tiger Shark]

Ok... A couple of thoughts....

Countries filtering content: China does it all the time.... That's why the group from Canada(?) wrote the secure proxying system that I haven't heard about for a long time... so that people can see stuff from outside the country. All China really did was tell their population that they can connect to the internet... It's an intranet enforced by the ISP's that are "managed" and audited by the government.... mess with the system and you aren't an ISP any more and will probably be in a really nice jail, (do they have the "country clubs" we have in the USA in China? Don't think so). Simple DNS Poisoning and a block on port 53 to DNS servers outside the ISP effects that little gem....

Tor: This came to my attention a few weeks ago through ISC, IIRC... This is wonderful in the hands of a Security Professional.... It's something of a pain _for_ a Security Professional too.... While I'm sure it will come to the attention of the crackers and skiddies it probably won't be used by your average problem user.... If you find someone playing with it and want a Snort rule to detect it I'll take a look if you like... But I have a feeling that someone more talented than me is already looking at it and will come up with a good rule soon.

Your ISP scans you: Yeah they might... But mine doesn't seem to.... I've been running my own mailserver for 5 years or more.... I have to use my work server as an outbound relay because of the SPF records stating that the internal IP's of Comcast aren't valid mailservers but inbound is unblocked. Funny though.... they have port 53, (DNS), inbound blocked so I have to host my DNS at work too.

Your ISP logs you: In the Good Ole USA I think this only occurs when the LEO's get involved.... It's a huge cost that they don't need and have no use for since, in most cases, it breaches their own privacy policy. A good clue is that you have to complain to [email protected] to get any response when you want to report a blatently hacked/wormed box.... and they do **** about it.... They don't log, they don't monitor unless forced and they don't care... it's not their business...

[Iron-Kurton]

I've been informed that the only logging we do is querying the modem for modem status and potentially hazardous open ports.

Just wanted to point out that if you are a home user with a "@home" connection, they consider other ports hazardous, such as port 80 and 21. I haven't had a problem with Cox as far as this is concerned, but I heard that if there is a LOT of activity on port 80, then they'll shut it down for you. They want you to pay for your webserver bandwidth

-ik