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Much has been reported about the Egyptian Government’s shut-down of Internet access to its citizens in the wake of civic protests. While all reports properly condemn such censorship, there has been some disagreement on the way it was achieved.
The most credible reports, such as that from The Telegraph explain that the shut down involved the withdrawal of more than 3,500 Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) routes, used by networks to establish routing between one another. When a border router is turned off or removed, its routes are automatically withdrawn, and the networks beyond it become unreachable. Egypt, although a large country, is served by a small number of border routers.
Other reports, such as this Huffington Post story, appear to be misinformed. This article blamed a solution from a U.S.-based company, Narus, whose products incorporate deep packet inspection (DPI) technology. The article then went on to call for Congress to pass rules on the use of DPI. (1) It also named a variety of companies, including Sandvine, that include DPI in their solution sets.
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