Investigation of DDoS attacks against independent media shows links to Philippine government and army
July 1, 2021 Qurium Media Foundation has received brief but frequent denial of service attacks against the Philippine alternative media outlets Bulatlat and Altermidya, as well as the human rights group Karapatan during May and June 2021. When launching a digital forensics investigation to attribute the attacks, Qurium found links to the Department of Science […]
MYANMAR’S OFFICIAL SOCIAL APPLICATION OKPAR – FLAWED PRIVACY BY DESIGN?
May 5, 2021 Qurium Media Foundation has analyzed the mobile application OKPar App that has been advertised as the official social application in Myanmar. The App offers a number of services, including an IM chat. OKPar claims to be secure and offer end-to-end encryption, but Qurium’s investigation shows that it leaks sensitive information: “OKPar App […]
DARK OPS UNDERCOVERED: EPISODE II – ELIMINALIA
– WHAT IS HIDING BEHIND THE FAKE DMCA COMPLAINTS? Last week, Qurium revealed how Eliminalia removes unwanted content from Google search results by abusing GDPR and the DMCA and filing fake complaints based on manipulated information. This week Qurium is following up on the Eliminalia case focusing on the content. What type of information are […]
Dark Ops Undercovered: Episode I – Eliminalia
April 12, 2021 Welcome to Qurium’s new series of forensic investigations: ‘Dark Ops Undercovered’. Learn how fake DMCA and GDPR are abused to hinder the freedom of the press when investigating corruption or abuses of power. In recent months, several media outlets hosted by Qurium have received requests from fake law firms to remove articles […]
Nigeria attempts to silence the investigative media Peoples Gazette by ordering blocking
February 2, 2021 Peoples Gazette, a Nigerian independent news outlet, is not reachable from a number of mobile Internet providers from inside the country since the 26th of January 2021. Peoples Gazette is a new investigative media that during its first four months in operations have revealed illicit financial transactions of Nigeria’s political elites and […]
Uganda blocks Kenyan news ahead of the presidential elections
January 14, 2021 The Kenyan based The Elephant, is one of the premier online sources of news analysis in the East African region with a fast-growing readership across the African continent and beyond. By mid December 2020, The Elephant started to receive complains from users in Uganda, not being able to access their site. With […]
Telegram latency in Belarus: how the national provider controls the traffic
November 5, 2020 Beltelecom, the national telecommunications company in Belarus, fully owned by the Government of Belarus and operated by the Ministry of Telecommunications, controls the traffic of Telegram, generating latency for the messenger platform in Belarus. During the past weeks Qurium Media Foundation and Human Constanta, a human rights NGO in Belarus, have been […]
How do providers implement Internet blocking in Belarus?
September 23, 2020 Qurium analyzes the blocking implemented by four different operators in Belarus Belarus operators use their own infrastructure to implement the blocking Block techniques include transparent web proxies, injection of HTTP responses, stateless and stateful SSL DPI and fake DNS responses In August 2020, mass anti-government protests erupted in Belarus against the re-election […]
How operators use Sandvine to block independent media in Egypt
Sandvine has during recent years become infamous for its support to Internet repressive regimes, such as Belarus, Azerbaijan, Egypt, where its DPI equipment is used to block independent media and human rights organizations. This report provides insight on how Sandvine’s equipment performs the blocking, and how it can be detected. The report, which is a […]
“My Ooredoo Myanmar” mobile application fails to ensure integrity and confidentiality
September 22, 2020 The Qatar owned telecommunications company Ooredoo Myanmar Limited fails to provide a secure mechanism to protect the integrity and confidentiality of data collected from its users in Myanmar. Users of Ooredoo Myanmar are recommended to install the mobile App “My Ooredoo Myanmar” to manage their phone accounts with the operator. An analysis […]
