Iran Internet Outage: Widespread Collapse Reported

Internet Access Severely Restricted in Iran Amidst Ongoing Conflict

A near-complete disruption of internet connectivity has been reported across Iran on Wednesday. This coincides with the sixth day of escalating conflict with Israel, according to multiple web-monitoring organizations.

Widespread Blackout Confirmed

NetBlocks, a leading firm specializing in global internet access tracking, announced via X (formerly Twitter) that Iran is currently experiencing a “near-total national internet blackout.”

This assessment has been independently corroborated by several other organizations dedicated to monitoring internet infrastructure.

Data Reveals Sudden Connectivity Loss

IODA, a system designed for near-real-time monitoring of internet infrastructure connectivity to identify large-scale outages, displayed a sharp and sudden decline in internet connectivity within Iran on Wednesday.

Significant Traffic Reduction

David Belson, head of data insight at Cloudflare, informed TechCrunch that internet traffic within Iran has plummeted to approximately 97% below the levels recorded at the same time last week.

This observation is supported by Cloudflare’s internal data concerning Iran’s internet connectivity.

Context of Military Conflict and Cyberattacks

The reports of these internet disruptions emerge as Iran and Israel are actively engaged in a military confrontation. Furthermore, Iran has been the target of multiple cyberattacks since the commencement of this recent conflict.

These attacks included successful breaches of a prominent Iranian bank and a cryptocurrency exchange. Following these incidents, Iranian state news agency IRIB alleged that Israel had initiated a “massive cyber war” against Iran.

Subsequently, Iranian authorities reportedly began implementing restrictions on access to the nation’s internet infrastructure.

Cause of Outage Remains Unclear

Despite the observed disruption, the precise cause of the internet collapse remains undetermined, as stated by Belson.

“Typically, with outages of this magnitude, we observe a simultaneous reduction in announced IP address space, indicating that the country’s networks are no longer detectable on the internet,” Belson explained to TechCrunch.

“However, we have not detected such a phenomenon in this instance.”

Belson further clarified, “We can only confirm the drop in traffic; the data itself does not reveal the underlying reason for this decline.”

Independent Verification

Doug Madory, an internet-monitoring expert with Kentik, also documented the same widespread collapse in connectivity.

Madory reported on X that “Numerous Iranian service providers are now offline, marking the second national internet blackout in as many days.”

He added that this current outage is more extensive than the one experienced the previous day.

Further Considerations

• The situation is evolving rapidly.
• The impact on citizens and businesses within Iran is significant.
• Ongoing monitoring is crucial to understand the full extent and duration of the outage.