Syrian Internet is restored, but Anonymous pledges retribution for outage

Yesterday saw Internet access withdrawn across Syria as the government looked to quell widespread protests in the country.

In the past few hours, Google’s Transparency Report tool shows that access has been restored, with traffic levels currently back at the level they were at before yesterday’s disconnection. However, it appears that the Syrian state faces retribution for its actions in the form of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on the websites of its embassies, starting with those in France and Saudi Arabia.

In a note posted to Pastebin, the gathering of Internet activists swore to remove Syrian Embassy websites from the internet, stating that it would also use Black Fax and E-Mail Bomb campaigns. The note followed an earlier message from Anonymous, criticising President Assad’s regime.

Anonymous’ DDoS attacks on the Syrian websites were due to begin at 9.30am Syrian local time. It’s unclear whether the attacks actually took place or are still ongoing. At the time of writing, five and a half hours after this, the website for Syrian embassy in France is slow to load but is reachable, while the Saudi site appears stable. Other Syrian embassy sites we’ve checked appear up.

Anonymous has also been actively attacking the Iranian government in recent days. We’ll update with any additional news as it emerges.