Implications

Creating ID’s for all Iranian users, hosting Iranian websites in the country, and using Iran’s national SSL certificates, taken together will enable state agencies to access Iranians’ online communications. As such, they will leave Iranians defenseless against Iran’s intelligence and security agencies, which continue to use their capabilities in cyberspace to monitor online activity, identify perceived opponents, and, in collaboration with Iran’s judiciary, prosecute political and civil activists on the “evidence” of online content with which they disagree.