While Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, was in chaos last month over rising energy costs and anger at the government, the country’s leaders took a drastic step to quell the protests: they blocked the internet.
First they tried to ban access to some news sites, social networks and messaging services. When activists bypassed curbs with software masking their locations, authorities cut off nearly all connectivity in the country.
The moves added uncertainty to an already dire situation. After payment apps and vending machines used to swipe debit cards went down, long lines formed at ATMs as Kazakhs rushed to get cash. Families could not communicate with loved ones. Taxi drivers who relied on ride-hailing apps said they stopped driving because they couldn’t get in touch with passengers.
“It was impossible to communicate,” said Darkhan Sharipov, 32, an accountant who was part of the protests. “The lack of information multiplied the chaos and misinformation.”
The scenes in Kazakhstan offer a taste of what could happen in Ukraine, where the internet could be one of the Russian military’s first targets in a potential conflict. Ukrainian and Western officials have warned that cyber-attacks could be part of any Russian intrusion.
This week, the Ukrainian government said the websites of two banks, the Ministry of Defense and the armed forces were briefly taken offline due to a series of denial-of-service attacks, in which massive amounts of traffic flooded a network. The attacks were the largest in the country’s history, Ukrainian officials said, and left traces of foreign intelligence agencies.
On Thursday, internet outages were registered on some mobile networks in eastern Ukraine, near the Russian border.
“In the event of a real military conflict, it is primarily the Internet infrastructure that will be destroyed,” said Mikhail Klimarev, a Russian telecommunications expert and the executive director of the Internet Protection Society, an anti-internet civil society group. . censorship.
“In Kazakhstan, the internet was turned off by order of the authorities,” he said. “In Ukraine, we fear that the internet will be shut down by shelling.”
Control of the internet is increasingly part of every modern conflict. Recognizing that the web is vital to communication, economics and propaganda, authorities have increasingly used shutdowns to suppress dissent and maintain power, akin to taking energy resources, water or supply lines hostage.
According to the latest annual report from Access Now, an international nonprofit that oversees these events, there were at least 155 internet outages in 29 countries in 2020. From January to May 2021, at least 50 shutdowns were documented in 21 countries.
They were in Yemen, among other places, where Saudi Arabia-led troops targeted the country’s telecom and internet infrastructure in the war, according to Access Now. In November, Sudan’s leaders shut down the internet for nearly a month in response to protests. And in Burkina Faso, the government ordered telecom companies to shut down mobile internet networks for more than a week in November, citing national security concerns.
“The only way to be absolutely sure no one is going online is to pull the plug on everything,” said Doug Madory, director of internet analytics at the telecommunications company Kentik.
In Ukraine, any internet shutdown would have to be carried out by an outside force, unlike in Kazakhstan, where the government used national security laws to force companies to disconnect.
Turning off the Ukrainian internet completely would be cumbersome. The country has more than 2,000 internet service providers, all of which would have to be blocked for a complete shutdown.
Max Tulyev, the owner of NetAssist, a small ISP in Ukraine, said his company had made preparations. To maintain service during conflict, NetAssist has been establishing connections with other Internet network operators and trying to establish connections around common locations that could be attractive military targets, he said. It has also set up a backup network center and purchased satellite phones so employees can communicate if networks go down.
“Because Ukraine is well integrated into the Internet, with many different physical and logical connections, it will be very difficult to completely disconnect it,” said Tulyev, who sits on the board of the Ukrainian Internet Association.
Still, many expect targeted power outages, especially in the Russian-Ukrainian border areas, when there is a war. Cyber attacks or a military attack can disconnect.
On Thursday evening, as fighting flared up in eastern Ukraine near the frontline with Russian-backed separatists, cell phone service went down in what authorities say was “targeted sabotage.” It was back on Friday morning.
“Sabotage of communications facilities will continue,” said Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister. “All of this is part of Russia’s plan to destabilize the situation in Ukraine.”
In many countries, turning off the Internet completely is not technically difficult. Regulators simply issue an injunction to telecom companies telling them to cut off access or risk losing their license.
In Kazakhstan, last month’s events illustrate how an internet shutdown could exacerbate a chaotic situation. The shutdown’s technical roots go back at least to 2015, when the country tried to emulate its neighbors China and Russia, which have been using internet censorship for years. Authorities in those countries have developed methods of snooping into communications and have built armies of hackers and trolls to attack opponents.
Last year, Russia slowed down Twitter traffic amid protests related to opposition leader Alexei Navalny, a slowdown that continues. China has built a police force to arrest those who speak out online and is ordering thousands of volunteers who post positive comments to encourage government initiatives.
According to civil society groups and activists, the Kazakh authorities have tried to develop comparable technical tools for surveillance and censorship without breaking the essential connections necessary for the economy to function.
Last month, Kazakhstan plunged into disarray as anger over rising fuel prices grew into widespread demonstrations, sparking a Russian-led military intervention. When the government cracked down, the protests turned violent. Dozens of anti-government protesters were killed and hundreds injured.
To prevent protesters from communicating and sharing information, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the president of Kazakhstan, turned to a digital scorched earth policy, similar to the one in Myanmar last year, which took the entire internet offline. In Myanmar, the military staged a coup and soldiers took over the data centers of the country’s telecom companies.
In Myanmar and Kazakhstan, the lack of internet added further confusion. In the event of a conflict in Ukraine, that added confusion would be part of the point, Mr Klimarev said.
“Destroy your enemy’s internet and it will be disorganized,” he said. “Banks, supply systems and logistics, transportation and navigation will stop working.”
In Kazakhstan, the internet outages started around January 2 and lasted until January 10. Initially, they were limited to certain communications and targeted areas where there were protests, said Arsen Aubakirov, a digital rights expert in Kazakhstan.
On January 5, internet monitors said the country had gone almost completely offline, affecting the country’s economy, including its sizable cryptocurrency operations.
The Ministry of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry ordered telecom operators to block access, citing a law that allowed the government to suspend networks and communications services in the interest of “ensuring anti-terrorist and public safety”.
While activists found ways to circumvent the blockades, the lack of internet meant many protesters were not aware when the government had imposed a new curfew, leading to violent clashes with police, said Sharipov, who was detained by authorities for protesting. While the internet was down, state media labeled the protesters as “terrorists” and drug users.
“This is another example of a country in turmoil choosing to shut down the internet to give them a few hours without public or international oversight,” Mr Madory said.
