28 March, 2024

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Once Again Colombo Telegraph Blocked; Dialog And Etisalat Tamper DNS Responses

Continuing its undeclared war on media Sri Lanka’s government of President Mahinda Rajapkasa blocked the Colombo Telegraph in Sri Lanka, this time with privately owned Telecommunication companies –  Dialog and Etisalat – further depriving the people’s right to information.

MR08102012E_1For those of Colombo Telegraph’s more technically interested readers, please find below information on the Blockade;

What is Colombo Telegraph?

Colombo Telegraph is strictly a public interest website relating to Sri Lankan matters and is run completely voluntarily by a group of exiled journalists. The site gives space to a wide range of political views and censored/ underreported stories. Colombo Telegraph has the honour of being first and only Sri Lankan site to be approved for inclusion in “Guardian Select” . It was checked and approved for Guardian Select membership by Guardian editorial. Guardian Select bring together the very best independent publishers from across the web.

Chapter 1: HTTP connections reseted at Mobitel  and Sri Lanka Telecom 

Starting the Friday, 23rd of August 2013 a large number of connections to https://www.colombotelegraph.com were failing. Readers of the website started to report that the site was not available inside of Sri Lanka from some Internet providers.

As the server has been blocked in the past, it was reasonable to believe that blocking was taking place once again. In order to verify the cause of the problem we checked 500 different connections inside of Sri Lanka to see from where such blocking was taking place.

From our analysis we determined that connections from AS45356 and AS9329 were blocked.

The blocking implemented in Mobitel and Sri Lanka Telecom consists in reseting the connections of the readers. More technical information of the blocking can be found here.

Chapter 2: DNS responses are tampered by Etisalat and Dialog 

The 7th of January and 10th February 2014 we monitored a large drop of traffic coming from Dialog LK and Etisalat.

Colombo Telegraph blocked 3

Drop of traffic from Etisalat (10th February 2014) and Dialog (7th January 2014)

A closer look into the Etisalat connections shows that traffic drops at around 10 AM, the 10th February 2014

Colombo Telegraph blocked 2

One interesting fact is that the traffic dropped 90% but not completely.  After obtaining traffic samples inside of the country we determined that both Etisalat and Dialog are impersonating DNS responses for the colombotelegraph.com domain name.

Etisalat tampering

Etisalat claims that the name server of colombotelegraph.com is ns2.tigo.lk

  • A request to one of their name servers provides this response

dig ns @203.189.X.X colombotelegraph.com

colombotelegraph.com. 86400 IN NS ns2.tigo.lk.

Both ns2.tigo.lk and ns2.etisalat.lk are hosted in the same IP 203.189.191.164

  • Requests to the domain colombotelegraph.com are responded with IP address 127.0.0.1, while requests to any subdomain as www.colombotelegraph.com are responded with the DNS response “No such name”
  • Requests to the SOA record in the DNS server

dig soa @203.189.X.X. cOlombotelEgrapH.cOM

cOlombotelEgrapH.cOM. 86400 IN SOA ns2.tigo.lk. root.cOlombotelEgrapH.cOM. 45 10800 900 604800 86400

An interesting result of the testing is that the SOA record is also tampered and follows the “capitalization rules” of the request.

Dialog tampering

Dialog also tampers the DNS responses as Etisalat but the implementation of this blocking technique seems to have a different fingerprint.

  • Dialog also claims to be the name servers of colombotelegraph

dig ns @122.255.X.X colombotelegraph.com

colombotelegraph.com. 86400 IN NS ns2.dialogsl.net.

colombotelegraph.com. 86400 IN NS ns1.dialogsl.net.

  • colombotelegraph.com and www.colombotelegraph.com are both resolved with IP 127.0.0.1

dig @122.255.X.X colombotelegraph.com

colombotelegraph.com. 86393 IN A 127.0.0.1

dig @122.255.X.X www.colombotelegraph.com

www.colombotelegraph.com. 86287 IN A 127.0.0.1

  • The SOA records provided by Dialog do not follow capitalization and contain always the date 2010092701

colombotelegrapH.com. 86400 IN SOA ns1.dialogsl.net. root.dialogsl.net. 2010092701 900 3600 2592000 86400

Summary and Conclusions

The following table summarized the DNS tampering implemented by Dialog and Etisalat. Although both provides use DNS as means to block the site the implementation is different.

Traffic analysis shows that Dialog LK implementation might consist in impersonating the colombotelegraph.com zone and including the colombotelegraph.com and www.colombotelegraph.com A records as 127.0.0.1

Etisalat implementation exhibits a completely different behavior and points to the presence of a dedicated hardware with Deep Packet Inspection capabilities.

Colombo Telegraph blokced

History of Colombo Telegraph blocking

First -December 26, 2011 – We are blocked but we will not be stopped

Second – May 8, 2012 – Colombo Telegraph Blocked Again

Third – March 29, 2013  – Sri Lanka Blocks Colombo Telegraph and Selected Tweets: Colombo Telegraph Unblocked

Fourth – August 23, 2013 – Colombo Telegraph Blocked, How To Reach Us Now: Sri Lanka Telecom And Mobitel Joins The DPI Club!

Other attempts 

October 26, 2012 – Colombo Telegraph Was Hacked

August 9, 2012 ColomboTelegraph Password Cracking Attempt Blocked

Freedom House Report: Freedom On The Net 2012, Sri Lanka Is A Country At Risk

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Latest comments

  • 12
    5

    That is indeed sad as i was doing a case study on mental patients in the form of K A Sumansekera (Leela),Jim Softly,Patriot,Fathima Fukushima (Lorenso),Vidushana,Ella ‘Moda’ Kolla et all and now I we wont be able to see the comments of these clowns

    • 7
      3

      “Debacle of Asia” is run by a clan scared of even simple websites. Embarrassing!

      Let us strengthen King’s hands, even more, next time around.

      Cheers!

      • 9
        1

        I wonder whether this bugger knows how to use his laptop amongst his other “LAPTOPS”??

        • 4
          1

          Vtunnel.com is the easiest way to access blocked sites in Sri Lanka

          Vtunnel site users were also being harrassed with pop ups in Sri lanka but that has stopped, and now vtunnel is easily available..

          • 3
            0

            its advisable to refrain from publishing the proxy sites in public , offenders can block the specific proxy site by adding another Access list to the already existing fire wall.

      • 5
        1

        I know our knee-jerk reaction is to blame the Rajapaksas for this; and they ARE responsible for it ultimately.

        But please don’t forget to put the blame squarely on where it belong, that is on these two telecom companies. I hope people will do something about this, rather than sitting on their hands, and switch their subscriptions to another carrier; that is how you keep them in line in a market economy.

        You may dream of the day the Rajapaksas are chased away but what about all these other morons, whether they are in the army, police, gov. offices or mega companies? There will still be around, won’t they? So, just because the Rajapaksas are gone does not mean everything will be hunky dory, yeah? How is everyone going to get rid of these dead-weight from society?

        • 3
          1

          Agree.

          Those who benefit from Clan misrule will not give up easily.

          Look at Egypt. Revolution was reveresed.

          Now Mubarak’s former Army cronies are back again in charge.

          Cheers!

          • 1
            0

            That is exactly why we like to bomb you and make it like Libya.

      • 4
        1

        To all,

        Just type “Free proxies” & find hundreds of them & then type “www.colombotelegraph.com” you are there.

        You can go to any banned website in this way.

        Cheers.

    • 8
      0

      Peacelover,

      Were all the above characters you refer to for your mental study former Samaneras or Alter Boys who escaped from child abuse by the Senior Monks and Priests?

      Just curious.

      There are loads of them out there for you to pick study.

      • 2
        0

        the way the thakkadi raja looking at the laptop one can easily guess he is a computer wizard hik hik hik.
        look at the face of the ‘kos muna’ hik hik hik, completely lost.
        ‘kawada kaapu takaranda’.

        • 1
          0

          He is only looking at the Photos of himself, to choose the best ones for publicity in the Daily Noise.

    • 6
      2

      Piecelover

      According to intelligence sources, that’s precisely
      why the government has blocked CT. The government felt
      CT was using these mad men you have mentioned and
      pseudo-scholars like Native Javi to create a smokescreen
      of balance, neutrality and intellectual sophistication
      in order to gain recognition by western media and achieve
      international credibility.

      • 2
        1

        “pseudo-scholars like Native Javi to create a smokescreen”

        Pseudo is at N Delhi where rajapassa the nava coloba malasannaya like you reside- bribe lend your passa with mum sis niece etc.

        I don’t need to educate wooden stubs like you.

        The land does not belong to any ones father.

        Neither do I need even a piece of that land.

        But I like the IAF to bomb the place and get rid of the bestiality breed with scratchy underwear.

        This is just making the preliminaries before NaMo takes control.

        Till such time we let you shout from all your holes and identify you.

    • 2
      1

      Better if they block the Daily News website!

      • 1
        0

        Rationalist,

        “Better if they block the Daily News website! “

        Then from where would one get the Pacha, Lies and Boru?

  • 1
    2

    In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same.
    Albert Einstein

  • 2
    2

    Colombo TG having own view of politics of Our land, but they permitted other having own views. Is fact CT accept other view as well as media who respect an opposite schools of thoughts.

  • 8
    1

    CT can never be blocked because we will find some way of reaching it.This is one mag that is really worth reading.

    • 6
      1

      I concur, but the “Daily Noise” whose editor is Rajkattapal Abeynayake, is the best of all the rest for its obituary notices??

  • 4
    2

    CT,

    From chennai also the site is blocked multiple times a day. Error: Operation aborted Unable to open the website. Please check your firewall traffic whether any TLD blocking occurs region wise through DNS tampering

    Thanks
    Mani
    Chennai

    • 3
      2

      That is surprising that a country outside SL would block CT.

  • 5
    5

    Do what NSA does!

    What is good for USA is good for all.

    • 6
      2

      Fathima (aka Lorenzo)
      In case you were not aware see comment from CT:-
      (Shehan, please don’t try to mislead our readers, you are commenting from Sri Lanka and your ISP is Sri Lanka Telecom Broadband.)

      timely reminder not to mislead or lie. DW at LW has beady eyes too!

    • 1
      1

      The NSA is guilty of spying , no mention was made that NSA or the US government blocks certain websites. In this case we are talking about GOSL blocking certain websites.

      • 0
        2

        So spying anyone and everything is better than blocking a few websites?

        • 0
          1

          I didn’t say it was , I was pointing out that what Fathima alluded to was not the case .

          • 0
            0

            Good, cheers.

  • 2
    0

    Good opportunity for opposition parties to take up this matter (freedom of opinion as well as other civil liberties) to the people in the forthcoming elections. Are MR & siblings scared of the truths. Some of them in his party also do not understand what is written in the CT.

  • 2
    1

    For those congenital deniers, the Rajapakses have made ours a Police
    State years ago. What asinine brain can call this a “strong Govt” as that mindless Keheliya claims – if the regime, with all its legal and extra-legal resources, is scared stiff of a small outfit like Colombo Telegraph.

    Kettikaran

  • 5
    0

    Dialogue director board and shareholders seem to be diversified and independent so it is not known how the Govt can get these things done, unless it is with the knowledge of the CEO Hans Wijesuriya. Unless there is some leverage exerted through their involvement in Govt sponsorship programs etc. Etisalat too is 100% emirates owned. Can such things be done at a lower level?

    • 3
      0

      Safa ,

      Junta Regime has overwhelming power to do any thing they wish for , remember how Etihad/Emirate airline boss was shown the door upon taking a correct decision , TRC is the key for Telecom manipulation.

  • 1
    1

    Pathetic, now the diaspora will have a field day with their lies and deception.

  • 7
    0

    Colombo Telegraph,

    Freedom to obtain knowledge, information and education is a fundamental right. Those who tamper with these rights are doing so for their ulterior motives.

    So what are potential responses and solutions?

    1. Mirror Colombo Telegraph with different URL’s and in different servers. Make it too cumbersome and ineffective to n;ock.

    2. Let the subscribers know that privately owned Telecommunication companies – Dialog and Etisalat – further depriving the people’s right to information, and ask the subscribers to make the request, and move on to other carriers.

    3. Disrupt the services of the culprits, the dogs of the regime, and make it costly. People declare Hartal against these two companies. Make them lose money and go out of business.

    DeJa Vu…..Blocking the Freedom of speech….

  • 2
    3

    Well if I remember correctly I did warn the folks about Dialogue (a Once highly reputed and classy mobile network with the beau monde of employees- sadly no more & replaced with gamaralas holding fake degrees ,diplomas bought from Bookshops in India & China).

    you will hear and see more in the future. If you know people who worked in dialogue who are now working overseas talk to them and they will confirm what I been saying..

    And Etisalat is not a UAE full owned it is just a franchise owned by sl elites of elites 1005 7 controlled 100%..

    Funny The BBS has not realized the meaning of Etisalat yet , otherwise more than the word Halal ,they will be screaming their head off for etisalat or Like what is been done now to halal ,the money is directed to the rights hands I guess , so as long as that is so Etislat is okay i guess..

    Kulu Nafs zalikal mouth

    Verily every soul shall taste death ,, I sure would like to see the eyes of National Freedom Front (NFF) MP Mohamed Muzammil ,when de angel of death approaches him,, what a disgrace he makes of such two honorable names -what men- he , the mayor Muzzamil ,azwar, and faizer Mustafa are ,, parasite living on the community.. its time to recite lahaneth on them after thajud prayers believe me, & God will answer it.

  • 1
    2

    manisekaran – if I am not mistaken Airtel is now owned by Etislalat , could be a possibility Airtel may be tempering -anything is possible .

    what is this country heading to?

    Private financial Institutes are forced to merge with banks why? are we heading for a dangerous financial crash? (like Indonesia had during Suharto & if that happens will the Muslims be targeted as an excuse like they did to the Chinese business community in Indonesia?

    Why so-many murders on daily basis?

    Hazarat Inayat Khan wrote it is cowardly to run away from trouble and at the same time it is also foolish to go through it.
    ————————————————————–

    • 0
      0

      The book respected in the world is as religion is satanic verses by bombay boy rushdi.

  • 1
    6

    I’m commenting from Tooting in London and I don’t get why I have to use a proxy to visit this site. It keeps coming up with the same error message when I try without.

    • 9
      0

      Shehan, please don’t try to mislead our readers, you are commenting from Sri Lanka and your ISP is Sri Lanka Telecom Broadband.

      • 3
        0

        Bravo CT. You bowled Shehan out.

    • 0
      0

      This is the caliber of people we have in Sri Lanka, Shehan is so stupid he is thought no one would notice from where he is logging in. But it also shows one more factor that is even CT is blocked there are ways to view CT from SL. In a way you have exposed a loop hole.

  • 2
    0

    CT – we support your achievement so far, bringing the truth to the world. Carry on the good work.

  • 2
    1

    I think CT is doing a great job in bringing out the truth to the world, specially publishing what the people think of this nasty Sinhala regime. Cheers.

  • 0
    2

    Dear CT that was a wrong way to reply ,no matter what ,please bear with me am not your enemy but rather a very strong patron ,but this way of lashing out a reader and punishing him (although I agree he is wrong) will scare the daylights out of most of your patrons ,it would be better next time to warn such people by a private email and if they do not respond to it and continue the misbehavior then it is right to do what you did.

    No offense meant to you CT.
    regards
    Q-A-S-S-I-M

    • 2
      0

      If CT did not publickly state the facts , readers could be mislead as to why CT is inaccessible to some Sri Lankans. So it was necessarily for CT to publickly set the record straight to avoid confusion .

  • 2
    1

    peace lover , that is a very good and perfect analysis of this rotten lot who do nothing but waste the CT space with nothing but utter shop .

    Amerasiri , Javi is a nut gone loose ,he can not even be-considered a pseudo Scholar , rather a screwed up joker he is.

    The good sense of Humor of yours and native Veda are always appreciated on this forum .
    Keep it up.
    thank you to You & Native Veda

    • 0
      0

      Thank you for the compliments!

    • 0
      1

      “Amerasiri , Javi is a nut gone loose ,he can not even be-considered a pseudo Scholar , rather a screwed up joker he is.”

      Oh yes we feed you with pigshit that the mullas specify so that you keep on grunting and sucking authority arse to keep your hash like the iranians as per your koooo and run satanic verses by rushdi.

  • 1
    1

    BTW Shehan (in good spirit as a fellow reader) please try not to drag CT into any unwanted embarrassment, this is the only online journal that is very accommodating with amateurs and also the one and only Journal that provides some amount of truth to the readers and also always unbiased in informing us of what we in Sri Lanka are completely unaware of .

    So let us be fair to CT.

    No offense meant Shehan -you are a good writer so please keep writing.
    regards
    Q-A-S-S-I-M

  • 2
    0

    Without any disturbance, I am able to view CT daily and I am now operation from CMB. Thank you for informing us the blockage by the Private Telephone companies.

  • 2
    0

    The only way to counter this is to get hackers to start blocking and corrupting the GOSL websites too.When they find that they can’t dish out their propaganda in srilanka to the masses/asses,they will know what is like to get back the same medicine that they dish out to others.

  • 1
    0

    When someone starts a cyber war others also have to start aquiring skills in cyber war which going to be the main warfare of the 21st century.Those who don’t have skills in cyber warfare will be like them having a army with bows and arrows against guns,which is how we became colonies.

    • 3
      0

      You are right. But today we are not in an epoch – where those rich nations could win new colonies that easily. Even far poor countries in Africa improve their verbal powers to bring constructive counters on such efforts. Alas, lanken arguments – as I read headlines this morning – ” we have no fears against sanctions”… <– these are common to syria, north korea, few other east block countries. If the nation would want to achieve – progress – state must prove their democratic values.

      It is the typical nature of highly corrupted leaders to foster the society through their own mechanisms. Country wide masses would though reject the behaviours of WW, Udaya and the like, there are significant fractions belonging to "literate but Stupid" have no other choice than being caught by ongoing rule. The mentioned groups are rather helpless, see nothing than their day today survival; latter is common to many in developing countries by their nature. They are not interested in "facts and figures, checks and balances of the current administration", but about their day today survival- because of lack of proper income.

      Political survival of some parties in several European electorates are totally dependent just on few thousands of votes. May be this is the case in our country too. I did not go to compare the recent numbers, but very clear,lanken people across the island have no overall view about today^s politics; and why opposition is seen weakened? and why highly corrupted issues carried out by top leadership would nt surface. I appreciate the views of JVPers right at these days – they are only ones who focus on billions of highly corrupted familial rule and their close ones. Many feel rulers develop the country, they seem still overwhelmed by military victory defeating terror, just looking at Southern highway and other road development projects.

  • 3
    2

    Government should stop blocking websites.

    Instead keep all anti government websites open.

    Just spy on who is accessing them from SL.

    ISP can give these data.

    • 0
      0

      Oh yes fatfoo aka mango for the defence ministry but the smell off you is so awful that we wonder when you are going to wash.
      btw how is your dayan silva transsexual.??

    • 0
      0

      “Just spy on who is accessing them from SL.”

      Hey Mango Transsexual,

      How do non ChiCom operate?? Many are itching to be your Dracula- Boooo Booo!!

      They all go to M&S so fit-e-fit no more ambude.

      Pity you never heard of ghost multiple proxy playing caspar and spooky; we can see you and you cant see us.

      Have a pleasant day in your greater london sanatorium

  • 2
    4

    All the LTTE morons support CT. That is enough to ban CT in Sri Lanka! CT never ever publish anything about the destruction of the LTTE terrorists who were a menace for every SL citizen.

    CT must see the other side of the war also!

    • 2
      0

      They know the other side of your name??

    • 0
      1

      “CT never ever publish anything about the destruction of the LTTE terrorists”

      That is why they don’t you idiot,as you rightly mention they were destroyed 4 years ago and everyone has lost interest in them.CT does not produce any articles,they only publish what others have produced.Nothing to publish when nobody is now writing anything about LTTE.They are gone as a military outfit,don’t you get it.Anyway why are you so obsessed with them to the point you sound so mad with them.What did they do to you personally?It must have been something bad because they were ruthless.

      • 1
        1

        May be for a change CT should publish articles demanding that the remaining LTTE terrorists and terror supporters be brought to justice too. Nobody is going to buy your statement “LTTE.They are gone ….” scenario. They are very much alive. You can see them in foreign soil waving LTTE flags. Any Tamils who donated money to the LTTE are also needed to be served justice. Many commentators here in TC may also fall into the same category. Here is a list why we need them;
        http://www.slnewsonline.net/After_signing_the_so-called_JM.htm

        • 0
          0

          Eusense,you got to wear your specs.I said they are gone as a military outfit.It was the military aspect that srilankans were bloody worried about,what with all the bombs going off etc.

          “May be for a change CT should publish articles demanding that the remaining LTTE terrorists and terror supporters be brought to justice too.”

          Can’t you read what i said that CT can only publish articles that others have written.Who is going to write about going after these fellows because there is no direct evidence linking them to the crimes committed in srilanka.The only one i can think of is adele balasingham who is clearly shown in a photo giving cyanide capsules to LTTE girls.She can probably say that it is better to commit suicide, than be captured and gang raped and killed like issaipriya.However it is morally reprehensible for the UK to continue to keep her there.She should be told to pack her bags and go to a country that will tolerate such extreme acts.

  • 2
    0

    He is looking at the laptop like as if he has been given a plate full of spaghetti and bolognese instead of his favorite rice and curry.

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