August 2018 (b) edition
The NetBlocks Group is a civil society initiative working at the intersection of digital rights,
cyber-security and global information policy.
Independent and non-partisan, NetBlocks strives for an open and inclusive digital future for all.
@netblocks
THE INTERNET MEASUREMENT
HANDBOOK
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO DEFEND YOUR RIGHT TO
STAY INFORMED IN TIMES OF EMERGENCY
TMTM
TM
PREFACE This handbook provides practical advice to help diagnose internet shutdowns, telecommunications blackouts and politically or economically motivated online censorship.
In times of crisis, effective communication helps people stay safe, ac-cess emergency medical services and support free and fair elections.
The outlined diagnostic meth-ods can also be used to assess the impact cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure. They are also effective at tracking out-ages during humanitarian disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, floods and fires, supporting first responders on the ground.
Collecting evidence is the first step towards repairing critical infra-structure and restoring telecommunications and dependent services.
This is a living handbook – please take a moment to contribute: https://netblocks.org/handbook
NETBLOCKSmobile internetdisruption
11:15AM
INTERNET SHUTDOWN LOGBOOK
Date Kind Regions affected, duration and context
12
CONTACT US
The NetBlocks team can be reached as follows:
Email [email protected]
PGP 6672 FFA7 BF39 B0D8 DD3B BC9D 59B4 CB95 6BBB
Twitter @netblocks
Our network
THE INTERNET MEASUREMENT HANDBOOK 1
WHY MONITOR INTERNET DISRUPTIONS? Monitoring of internet access quality and freedom are essential for the protection of human rights, the development of sus-tainable cyber-security policies that sup-port digital prosperity and economic de-velopment.
Internet shutdowns are often used to mask further vi-olations of fundamental human rights on the
ground. Network controls are closely related to in-fluence operations and online disinfor-mation campaigns.
Whatever can’t be seen by the public and reported by journalists hap-pens in absolute darkness.
Emergency services, healthcare and pharmacies are im-pacted due to difficulties reaching victims and assessing the situation on the ground.
Research shows that economies falter, investor confidence collapses and startups fail when communication networks become unreliable, damaging economic prosperity in both the short and long term.
2
Using three new real-time measurement techniques, Net-Blocks is shedding light on internet shutdowns, infor-mation controls and the flow of information between autonomous networks.
Data collected from around the world informs ongoing policy and advocacy work on digital rights, producing
alerts and insights into network disruption events, cyber-attacks and their geopolitical and socioeconomic context.
OPEN TOOLS FOR HEALTHY NETWORKS NetBlocks maintains several source code modules within the NetBlocks Open Source Project.
The modules include network measurement backend utilities, data visualisation tools and a flagship Linux-based measure-ment operating system for net-work probe devices.
Today, these systems are being adopted by human rights defenders and digital rights groups worldwide as a next-generation solution for emerging information control challenges.
Digitalrights
Fr
ee
no
t f
re
e
THE INTERNET MEASUREMENT HANDBOOK 11
ENHANCING NETWORK PROTOCOLS AND INTERNET STANDARDS
The NetBlocks team believes that core internet protocols and stand-ards can be strengthened to support human rights, data privacy and secu-rity – but only if civil society steps up to participate actively in the process of standardisation.
NetBlocks contributes to the Internet Engineering Task Force on work areas relating to the public interest, human rights and privacy. As part of an ongoing mission to make sure the internet remains safe, secure and inclusive for all.
NetBlocks has focused on supporting the engineering goals of the IETF with running code and reference implementations, and also partici-pates in the Human Rights Protocol Considerations research group of the Internet Research Task to examines policy and governance issues surrounding the technical work.
These efforts will mitigate the impact of network disruptions, aid pri-vacy and decentralization and support of freedom of expression for years to come.
“Access to knowledge is crucial to our
well-being and survival”
10
COST: THE COST OF SHUTDOWN TOOL Internet shutdowns cost globally about $2.4 billion USD and cause untold harm to trade, industry, and communi-ties that rely on the free flow of infor-mation for growth and prosperity.
COST, the Cost of Shutdown Tool, is a new technology initiative announced at the African Union Commission meeting in Addis Ababa by the Internet Society and NetBlocks. It seeks to empower journalists, researchers, advocates, policy makers, businesses, and other stakeholders with economic arguments that can create policy change.
Incorporating global, regional and subna-tional methodologies for informal econo-mies from the Brookings Institution and CIPESA, built in the spirit of the U.N. Sus-tainable Development Goals and Internet Universality, COST produces insights that can promote unrestricted Internet access as a driver for digital prosperity and rights.
https://netblocks.org/cost
$2.4bn
“COST bridges the gap between network measurement and in-ternet policy-making”
THE INTERNET MEASUREMENT HANDBOOK 3
WHO’S LISTENING? Internet measurements using the outlined tech-niques collected alongside narratives of the human impact of internet disruptions serve as powerful ev-idence that can influence international policy and encourage governments to keep people connected.
The Global Network Initiative implements a set of principles for net-work operators and technology companies to abide by, while bodies including the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Hu-man Rights, the Council of Europe and UNESCO track disruptions as part of their mission to support human rights around the world.
TM
4
JOIN THE GLOBAL NETWORK AGAINST INTERNET SHUTDOWNS
NetBlocks supports a global network of civil society organization and communities from around the world who are pushing back against internet shutdowns.
Details on how civil society, public interest engineering teams and rights groups can sign up and join the network can be found on our contact page.
THE INTERNET MEASUREMENT HANDBOOK 9
HARDWARE-ASSISTED MEASUREMENT WITH NETWORK PROBES
Hardware measurement probes offer a more direct means to capture detailed forensic evidence of network disruptions.
These small IoT devices plug into residential and workplace wired ethernet networks and perform network tests to detect signs of in-terference.
The NetBlocks Open Source Project includes Huxley, a Linux-based operating system specialized for measurement tasks.
The system, currently in the R&D phase, enforces security policies to avoid collection of personal data and allows for different kinds of meas-urement tasks to be run concur-rently in a virtual sandboxed envi-ronment, provide a layer of security for human rights defenders and at-risk communities.
DPI BLOCKING
https://code.huxley.org
8
DETECTING REGIONAL BLACKOUTS Localized internet shutdowns and blackouts affecting a specific geo-graphic region have traditionally been difficult to detect. The Net-Blocks diffscan technique produces heatmaps over vast geographic expanses, performing scans at internet scale in real-time to help iden-tify and classify remote indicators of network disruptions.
Blackout detected by NetBlocks diffscan in Kirkuk, Iraq, 2:20AM 16 Oct. 2017 during military operations to seize Baba Gurgur oilfield
A diffscan can be requested from the NetBlocks. The system produces results when it observes a deviation, or difference, from nominal to restricted usage patterns and back, hence the name – for this reason it is best suited to short term blackouts lasting hours or days.
THE INTERNET MEASUREMENT HANDBOOK 5
PREPARING FOR DISRUPTIONS Sometimes, internet shutdowns and disruption events can be antici-pated or predicted in advance. This may be because a region has a his-tory of outages that coincide with real-life events, or because advance notice has been issued by the authorities.
In such cases, preparation and coordination can help improve out-comes: Notify the internet freedom community, deploy measurement systems in the community and use the #KeepItOn hashtag if there are indications a disruption might occur.
Preparing for internet disruptions by enabling enhanced monitoring can increase the likelihood of effective collection of evidence.
ELECTIONS POLITICAL SCANDALS SCHOOL EXAMS
RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS COURT ORDERS CONFLICT AND WAR
6
WHAT TO DO IN CASE OF A FULL INTERNET SHUTDOWN OR TELECOMS BLACKOUT?
Full shutdowns and blackouts are the most extreme form of telecom-munications restriction – no information goes in, and no information leaves the affected region.
Outside monitors can use the NetBlocks diffscan method to identify such situations remotely, so long as the region is under observation.
If you operate a NetBlocks hardware measurement probe, the device will also keep a log of up and down times and relay them when possi-ble.
When technology fails, keeping a log book of network disruptions de-tailing outage times and impact can also be useful.
Find alternative
comms
Check in with others
Keep a log book of
incidents
Reach the outside world
THE INTERNET MEASUREMENT HANDBOOK 7
WHAT TO DO IN CASE OF SOCIAL MEDIA THROTTLING OR BLOCKING?
If you have partial access to the internet but find that social me-dia and content platforms such as Twitter, Facebook or YouTube, or messaging plat-forms like WhatsApp and Telegram aren’t working or slowed down – throttled – you can easily perform tests yourself using NetBlocks Web Probes.
To run the censorship checker, just visit the following web address on any smartphone, PC or web-enabled device:
https://netblocks.org/scan
The web application will perform measurements safely and securely and relay results to the community. As long as the page is kept open, scans will continue from your vantage point. The link can be shared with others to increase coverage over different regions and service providers to build extensive reports.
