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DUBAI (Reuters) - Millions of Iranians have experienced disruption to email and Internet access, raising fears Iran's leaders have been testing new ways to step up control of web traffic ahead of a parliamentary election.

The disruption has been to the most common form of secure connections since Monday, including all encrypted websites outside Iran that depend on the Secure Sockets Layer protocol, which display addresses beginning with "https."

Students and traders have voiced frustration, saying they are unable to study or do business effectively, while computer experts point to a growing trend of government control.

Iran holds a parliamentary election on March 2, the first time Iranians will go to the polls since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in 2009.

That was followed by eight months of popular protests, met with a forceful response from the government. Protesters used

social networking sites to voice their anger over what they said were rigged results and to organise street protests.

Many Iranians use virtual private network, or VPN, software to get around government filters that block access to a wide range of websites including many foreign news sites and social networks such as Facebook.

Unsecured access to the Internet has also been widely affected in recent days, with many users reporting sporadic access.

Service providers have not given a reason for the disruption and are unable to say when services will return to normal.

An Iranian computer technician, who asked not to be named, said authorities were carrying out "trial and error" exercises.

"What they're trying to do is to control Internet traffic from inside Iran to the outside. They want to control access to secure sites, those are the sites that worry them.

"Blocking secure sites means that government offices and banks also have no access. So they're trying to act selectively and allow access to some selected sites."

Canada-based Iranian computer scientist Arash Abadpour, who blogs under the name Kamangir, expects Tehran to implement more disruption because of its increasing suspicion of the Internet.

"They're practicing cutting off the only remaining communication means left for Iranians with the outside world," Abadpour said, referring to his correspondence with bloggers inside Iran.

TOTAL CONTROL

"A lot of people are not noticing it but Iran has also been developing cyber-army initiatives and their range of disruption is growing. From above, there is a growing trend of the Internet becoming more controlled," Abadpour said.

Millions of Iranians have faced difficulty in getting online in recent days and many are becoming increasingly frustrated.

"I need the Internet for my studies to download articles, and in the past few days I've been unable to do that," said Mohammad, a physics student in Tehran who did not want to give his family name. "If it continues like this I'll fail my exams."

"I don't know what my phone bill will be this month because I've only been able to contact my partners abroad by telephone," said Babak Rezaian, the owner of a small import-export company.

"It's harmed my business badly because I cannot check any data or exchange information with my customers."

A spokesperson from Internet giant Google said the company's transparency report, a collection of graphs that monitor the flow of online information, showed Internet traffic was severely affected on Monday and faced some disruption on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The earlier cut-off affected users of encrypted websites for several days from February 10.

Next week's election will be contested by supporters of Ahmadinejad and those loyal to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who accuse the president of reckless handling of the economy. Reformist candidates have boycotted the election, saying the vote is not free and fair.

Concern is also growing over the national Internet system which many Iranians fear will give the authorities total control over what content users are able to access, thereby cutting them off from the outside world.

On Monday, the Iranian Telecommunications Minister Reza Taghipour said its launch had been delayed from February to May or June. The government says the national Internet project is designed to speed up the system and filter out sites that are regarded as "unclean."

"Today we see that the Internet has been a very powerful tool, which has been used in revolutions," Taghipour said, adding the Internet was a threat to Iran.

Iranian authorities routinely bar access to thousands of websites regarded as immoral or a threat to national security.

(This version corrects byline. Earlier version incorrectly listed Canadian-based Iranian computer scientist Arash Abadpour as an author of the story. He is one of the sources quoted in the story but not one of the authors.)

(Reporting by Marcus George; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

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Iran Internet disruption points to government control

Are you addicted to the Internet?

If so, you're not alone. Some 61% of people feel addicted to the Internet and are unable to quit browsing, according to an informal survey.

[More from Mashable: Doctor: Internet Addiction Could Become a Chronic Childhood Disease]

Opinion pollster SodaHead surveyed 602 visitors to its site Feb. 16. about whether they experience Internet addiction, and found that many people are self-diagnosed addicts.

Women experience addiction more than men, with 64% of women compared with 55% of men reporting the symptoms of addiction.

Interestingly, respondents addicted to other behaviors were less likely to be addicted to the Internet. Only 48% of smokers, compared with 65% of non-smokers, experience addiction. The margin between drinkers and non-drinkers was narrower, with 57% of drinkers and 64% of non-drinkers describing themselves as Internet addicts.

SEE ALSO: Afraid of Losing Your Phone? You May Have Nomophobia, Like Half the Population

Among respondents who felt addicted, teenagers between 13 and 17 were worst off, with 73% reporting addiction. As respondents get older, they reported subsequently less addiction, with the exception of those 65 and over, who feel more addicted than their counterparts between 45 and 64.

The poll found that the Internet users who spend the most time online were the least likely to be Internet addicts. Those between 45 and 54, on average, spend the most time each week online, reporting almost 40 hours of browsing each week. Teens, who feel the most addicted spend the least amount of time online, reporting only 22.3 hours per week of use.

Do you consider yourself an Internet addict? How many hours do you spend online each week? Let us know in the comments.

Thumbnail image courtesy of iStockphoto, alex-mit

This story originally published on Mashable here.

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Why Most People Say They're Addicted to the Internet [INFOGRAPHIC]

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's top Internet provider, KT Corp plans to charge data-heavy content providers such as Google's Youtube and Internet-enabled TV service operators to subsidize costly network upgrades, a KT executive said on Thursday.

KT fired its first salvo on "free riding" Internet services earlier this month by blocking access to certain TV applications offered by Samsung Electronics Co, the top manufacturer of Internet TVs, with the burgeoning TV industry set to generate profits from advertising and applications at the expense of heavy investments by network operators.

"We want to set a rule that we can equally apply to every platform operator that offers data-heavy content as those services threaten to black out our network. They should pay for using our network," Kim Taehwan, vice president of KT's smart network policy task force, told Reuters in an interview.

"Payment could take various forms, from sharing a portion of advertisement revenues or profits to settling network usage fees. We are open to discussing that and are focusing our efforts on Internet TVs for a start before broadening our target to other data-heavy services such as Youtube."

Such moves could have wider implications for the likes of Apple and Google, which are trying to replicate their enormous success in the smartphone market in the living room by offering services such as high-quality videos, movies, games and social networking via TVs.

"Once we set a rule with Samsung, we will apply it to other Internet TV operators, be it Apple or Google," Kim said.

Apple is in talks with Canada's two biggest telecom firms about launching iTV, a device combining the features of the wildly popular iPad tablet with those of a TV set, according to Canada's Globe and Mail.

Google is also preparing revamped Google TVs through alliances with firms such as LG Electronics Inc.

Telecoms operators, under growing pressure to upgrade their networks to support increasing data traffic, have already seen free Internet phone and text message services such as Kakaotalk and BlackBerry Messenger hit steady and superbly profitable sources of income.

Hardware manufacturers like Samsung, which hopes to build on its dominance of the TV market in the Internet TV segment, argue networks should not discriminate against content or services and that applications do not cause massive traffic slowdowns.

(Reporting by Miyoung Kim; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)

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KT reviewing network fees on Youtube, Internet TVs

Are we too quick to judge on the Internet? No question: Absolutely, yes. The Internet demands that we be harsh and merciless, fast and thorough. We (particularly bloggers, but writers of all varieties) see something and run with it, and often don't look back. There's no time. Surely, in a different era, perhaps pre-computer, perhaps paleolithic, things would be different. But this is our contemporary reality, and we're doing what we can in the circumstances we find ourselves living and working in.

RELATED: 13 Other Racist Clichés Headline Writers Need to Avoid

The speed of judgment and recrimination is faster and harsher when we turn to racism, sexism, violence, and all sorts of perceived-to-be-blatant wrongdoings, since writing about those topics often generates huge page views. We're so fast and critical, we often forget that real life people are affected by the lightning speed at which we determine, yes, this was right, or no, this was wrong, turning some of the recipients of the Internet's instant-judgment into "sacrificial lambs." The split-second decisions that media types—and commenters, Facebook updaters, and tweeters—make and walk away from can last a lifetime online, destroying people's reputations in the process. 

RELATED: No Slam Dunk Contest for Jeremy Lin; 3-Point Shots for All

I'm not talking about mistakes which, while bad, don't actually fall into the grey area of "judgment"—at least corrections for those can be issued, and things hopefully made right. I'm talking about the more vague process set in motion against, say, Rainn Wilson for making an unfunny rape joke (a tautology in itself). That went something like this: unhappy retweets and DMs that prompt a conversation with his publicist (we're guessing) and the deletion of the offensive tweet followed by the issuing of a public apology. That happens in less than a day, and no one ends up boycotting The Office. But Wilson is famous. He's beloved among so many that he'll move on from this mistake without so much as a scratch. 

RELATED: The Giants React to Gisele's Super Bowl Snit; A New Contract for Billy Beane

On the other hand, there's Anthony Federico, the guy who wrote the "racist" (or, definitely, cliche-ist) headline about Jeremy Lin on ESPN.com. He posted it, right there on the page: "A chink in the armor," an awkward, offensive play on words that was seen by many as racist. ESPN was horribly embarrassed, notwithstanding the fact that the phrase has been used by many a sports writer, not to mention an announcer, in the past.

RELATED: The Super Bowl Is Simultaneously Killing and Saving Television

But in this context, or at least the perceived context, it was far, far worse. And even though plenty of racist, stupid expressions have been used when writing about sports and other things over time, what befell Federico was essentially the opposite of the Rainn Wilson case. In the ESPN case, we have a marginal character—a low level working guy writing about sports, living his dream— who wrote something ill advised on a large platform about someone spiking in popularity, thus ensuring that everyone would notice. On ESPN, a "small" person messed up "big"—so instead of a call to a publicist, a deletion, a public apology, and the entire internet moving on, Federico got fired. Not just fired, actually: Federico continues to be blasted across the Internet. The best case scenario for his mistake, he's an idiot with a penchant for poor word choices. Worst case scenario... well, that's far worse. I'm not taking particular issue with his firing; in this day and age, news organizations fire people for what they write and tweet all the time. A headline writer should know better. But there is some sort of a hypocrisy here—or, at least a punishment not quite commensurate with the crime.

RELATED: Taiwanese Paparazzi Won't Leave Jeremy Lin's Grandma Alone

I've felt complicated emotions about the headline writer being fired since it happened, and it's because it seems to support something happening on the Internet (as I've mentioned before) that it feels like we're not prepared to deal with, or not doing quite right. It's our shared willingness to pass immediate and final judgment on someone for their worst (undeniably worst!) moments in public and never give a thought to the person behind the blunder. These are mistakes, not war crimes. We've all made them.

Today, Federico tried to explain himself via Twitlonger, making a small step to remind people he's not his mistake: He's a person. In his post, he explains, "I wrote the headline in reference to the tone of the column and not to Jeremy Lin’s race. It was a lapse in judgment and not a racist pun. It was an awful editorial omission and it cost me my job. I owe an apology to Jeremy Lin and all people offended. I am truly sorry."

He goes on to describe himself as a Knicks fan, a Jeremy Lin supporter, a writer of "thousands and thousands" of headlines who was praised during his 5 years at ESPN, and a budding sports columnist "who has always tried to help rather than hurt people": 

If those who vilify me would take a deeper look at my life they would see that I am the exact opposite of how some are portraying me. 

They would see that on the day of the incident I got a call from a friend – who happens to be homeless – and rushed to his aid. He was collapsed on the side of the road due to exposure and hunger. They would see how I picked him up and got him a hotel room and fed him. They would see I used my vacation time last year to volunteer in the orphanages of Haiti. They would see how I ‘adopted’ an elderly Alzheimer’s patient and visited him every week for a year. They would see that every winter I organize a coat drive for those less fortunate in New Haven. They would see how I raised $10,000 for a friend in need when his kids were born four months premature. They would see how I have worked in soup kitchens and convalescent homes since I was a kid. They would see my actions speak louder than my words. They would see that these acts were not done for my glory, but for God’s. They would see that each day I live and will continue to live a life of joy and service.

Just because you do good things doesn't mean you're not a racist, or prone to the occasional racist mumbling -- or the maker of a stupid mistake. But to my ear at least, Federico doesn't come off as someone who's faking. 

In any case, he was fired, and he needs a new job. In the old days, there wouldn't have been an entire history of your fireable offense available for everyone to read in less than a minute of Googling. Federico's Twitlonger explanation doesn't even come up on the first page of a Google search of his name, though his mistake certainly does and will for some time. The question is not did he deserve to be fired, but does he deserve the wrath heaped upon him by people who don't even know the whole story and will likely forget about it in a week or two? Does he deserve for his entire life, or employment history, to be tainted by this mistake? What was a big story for few days on the Web has been, I imagine, a truly awful time for the real life Federico. We may be done writing about him, but that doesn't mean
he can turn around and move to the next thing so easily.

Most people do believe in second chances. You have to wonder if those are really even possible anymore with the Internet storing our every bad—or merely dumb—deed in perpetuity. You also have to wonder whether Federico's firing, not to mention the comments and vitriol it prompted, will do anything at all to stamp out the supposed racism at the heart of his mistake. Somehow, I doubt it.

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Who Wins When the Internet Plays Judge, Jury, and Executioner?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Internet service providers need to work harder to prevent hacks, data theft and other fraud, including contacting customers whose infected computers have been hijacked by organized crime and helping them clean out viruses, the head of the Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said he sought "smart, practical, voluntary solutions" to the massive problem of Internet fraud and data theft. He estimated that 8.4 million credit card numbers are stolen online each year.

Policymakers are eager to prevent security problems and subsequent bad publicity from slowing the growth of the Internet market, worth about $8 trillion a year.

"If consumers lose trust in the Internet, this will suppress broadband adoption and online commerce and communication, and all the benefits that come with it," Genachowski said in a speech.

In addition to helping customers whose computers have been pulled into a botnet, a network of computers used to send spam aimed at committing fraud, Genachowski urged network owners to adopt standards to ensure that Internet traffic goes through the most efficient route and to prevent any hijacking.

That step would presumably prevent a repeat of a 2010 incident where some 15 percent of Internet traffic was diverted through Chinese servers for about 18 minutes, said Genachowski.

The reason for the diversion, whether an innocent mistake or cyber espionage, has never been established.

Lastly, Genachowski urged Internet providers to adopt a system called DNSSEC to ensure that if an Internet user, for example, types the Internet address of their bank that they will go to their bank's web site rather than a fraudulent web site designed to steal passwords.

Comcast, which already contacts customers who have been pulled into botnets and which already uses DNSSEC, praised the chairman's speech.

"To be effective, everyone who is a part of the Internet ecosystem must play a meaningful role in ensuring that private and government networks, and personal computers and devices are secured," said Comcast/NBCUniversal President Kyle McSlarrow in a blog posting.

There was no immediate reaction from Verizon or AT&T Inc.

Internet security experts were pleased at the prospect of Internet service providers informing customers when their machines were pulled into criminal botnets, and helping them clean up their machines.

"The notification has to happen in some way. I think it's overdue," said Johannes Ullrich, a cybersecurity specialist at the SANS Institute Internet Storm Center, which monitors threats.

Some of the ISPs found that it was cheaper to notify customers before they telephoned to complain. "If you're infected with malware, your computer is going to be slow. And the first thing they (customers with slow computers) do is call the ISP," said Ullrich.

Dmitri Alperovitch, president of Asymmetric Cyber Operations, said he supported any effort to clear out botnets but said the FCC effort would do little to stop two other major threats: state-supported cyber-espionage, often blamed on China, or securing mobile devices.

Prominent hacking targets have included VeriSign, RSA, an authentication company owned by storage maker EMC Corp, and defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin Corp. Others include web search leader Google Inc, Citigroup bank and exchange operator Nasdaq OMX.

There are other efforts in Washington to ensure the Internet continues to function smoothly.

On Capitol Hill, the Senate is considering a bipartisan bill that requires the secretary of homeland security to designate certain infrastructure like air traffic control as critical and compel steps to defend against hackers.

The U.S. House of Representatives is considering similar legislation.

(Reporting By Diane Bartz; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

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FCC urges Internet companies to safeguard Web