tehran/iran to remove themselves from internet and web

for reference:
http://www.rt.com/news/iran-internet-intranet-security-938/

text:
Tehran plans to remove its key ministries and state bodies from the 
Internet next month, calling the world wide web “untrustworthy.” The 
action is the first phase in a planned Iranian project to replace the 
Internet with a domestic intranet.

The country’s key ministries will be unplugged from the global network 
as early as September, in a move Tehran said is aimed at protecting 
sensitive intelligence.

Iran’s Ministry of Communications and Technology announced earlier this 
year that it would launch a domestic intranet to replace the Web. The 
system will reportedly be operational in 18 months.

"The establishment of the national intelligence network will create a 
situation where the precious intelligence of the country won't be 
accessible to these powers," Iranian Minister of Communication and 
Information Technology Reza Taqipour said on Sunday.

Taqipour went on to blast the monopoly control of the Internet by a 
handful of Western countries.

"The Internet should not be in the hands of one or two specific 
countries," Iran’s FARS news agency quoted him as saying at a conference 
at Tehran's Amir Kabir University. Taqipour explained his argument by 
citing how the Internet has become an indispensable element of economic, 
security and social policy.

The decision to switch to an internal network is believed to have been 
caused by a series of hacking attempts and cyber attacks against Iran. 
Iranian nuclear facilities were reportedly attacked by a musical virus 
in July, turning on lab computers at night and blasting AC/DC’s 
‘Thunderstruck.’

Experts at Russia’s Kaspersky Laboratories exposed a Trojan virus called 
Flame in May 2012, which was designed to spy on web activity in Iran and 
some Middle Eastern nations. Russian cybersecurity experts labeled Flame 
“probably the most complicated virus ever.” Flame was believed to have 
targeted Iran's oil ministry and main export terminals.

The country’s nuclear program also suffered serious setbacks from the 
state-of-the-art Stuxnet virus. Stuxnet targeted computers running 
uranium enrichment centrifuges at Iran's nuclear facility in Natanz, 
destroying thousands of centrifuges and setting the country’s nuclear 
program back months, experts said.

Both Flame and Stuntex are believed to have been a joint development by 
the US and Israel.

The only other country to have its own intranet is North Korea. Dubbed 
Kwangmyong, the system was deployed in 2000 and is the only network 
available to North Korean citizens. Only a small number of 
government-authorized individuals are allowed to use the Internet.

Received on Monday, 6 August 2012 23:43:59 UTC