[tor-talk] Blocking event in Kazakhstan, October 2014?

[Luis]

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On 1/3/2015 4:30 AM, David Fifield wrote:
> Did something happen in Kazakhstan in the first week of October
> 2014? There big decrease in relay users (about 40%) accompanied by
> a simultaneous big increase in bridge users (about 800%).
> 
> Take a look at the graphs (also attached): 
> https://metrics.torproject.org/userstats-relay-country.html?graph=userstats-relay-country&start=2014-08-01&end=2014-12-31&country=kz&events=off
>
> 
https://metrics.torproject.org/userstats-bridge-country.html?graph=userstats-bridge-country&start=2014-08-01&end=2014-12-31&country=kz
> 
> I wrote a program to look for blocking events by looking for
> unlikely increases/decreases in relays and bridges simultaneously.
> This Kazakhstan event was one of the highest-scored finds by the
> program. I'm not aware of a Tor blocking event in Kazakhstan at
> that time, but it's the same pattern (decrease in relays and
> increase in bridges) that we've seen in Iran in late July 2014: 
> https://metrics.torproject.org/userstats-relay-country.html?graph=userstats-relay-country&start=2014-06-01&end=2014-10-31&country=ir&events=off
>
> 
https://metrics.torproject.org/userstats-bridge-country.html?graph=userstats-bridge-country&start=2014-06-01&end=2014-10-31&country=ir
> https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/12727
> 
> David Fifield
> 

Excellent find. No major events that would explain a blocking event
occurred in Kazakhstan judging from a quick Google search. I guess
they simply felt that their censorship systems needed an upgrade,
after having upgraded to deep packet inspection back in December 2011
due to unrest.

https://blog.torproject.org/blog/kazakhstan-upgrades-censorship-deep-packet-inspection
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