Syrian Internet Downed Again

Internet connections in Syria went down yesterday for almost an hour, companies have said, representing the second major outage in less than a month in the war-torn country.

Two firms, Akamai and Arbor Networks, sent TechWeekEurope graphs, showing that the Internet went down in Syria at around 4.20PM GMT.

Earlier in the day, rebel forces fought with President Bashar al-Assad’s army in a Syrian village yesterday, with up to 200 injured or killed. Civil war has raged in the country since protests started last year.

At the end of last month, Internet connections in Syria flatlined amidst heavy fighting in capital Damascus. It appeared the few connections that remained up were connecting out to servers that had been used to deliver spyware targeting Syrian dissidents.

In June 2011, two-thirds of the country’s networks were cut off, taken down Syrian Internet for many. It coincided with massive anti-government protests.

There may be some hope for Syrian rebels, as president Barack Obama has now said the US formally recognises them as “the legitimate representative” of the Syrian people. That means the main opposition coalition now has the backing of influential western governments, including the UK and France.

Think you’re a security pro? Try our quiz!