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One of the proposed elements of the infrastructure of the NIN is the National Operating System (NOS). Iran’s national SSL certificates are built into the NOS and the National Browser. Yet six years after Iran’s Communications Ministry published their “National Operation System Report” detailing the ...

National data centers comprise an important part of the infrastructure of the NIN. These centers are responsible for data storage, maintenance and processing, and maintaining the space for hosting websites in the country, online email communications, domestic messaging services and all communications between government and ...

During the Ahmadinejad government (2005-2013), three national email services, Chapar, Iran Post Company, and Iran Dot IR were launched in Iran. While all three of these email services are still operational, during Rouhani’s administration (2013-present), Iran Dot IR has become the main national email service and ...

Developing the NIN as an alternative to the global internet has necessitated the development of many auxiliary tools, services and other aspects of technological infrastructure. Over the course of the last 10 years, the Iranian government has made progress, even if uneven, toward this aim. ...

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 ...

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A second central security concern is the intention to transfer all servers and the hosting of Iranian websites to Iran—a move explicitly stated as one of the main objectives of the NIN. Jahangard told Jahan Eghtesad Newspaper that the reason for the transfer is to reduce ...

USER AUTHENTICATION PROCESS: The NIN was designed to require users ...

Protecting the privacy of their online communications is one of the main concerns of Iranian users. For over a decade, human rights defenders, activists, ethnic and religious minority rights leaders, students and journalists have been routinely targeted for hacking attacks by Iran’s security and intelligence organizations, ...

Iranian authorities and designers of the NIN have cited improved security as one of the most important benefits of this network, and that is prominently used to justify its development to Iranian users. According to their statements, the NIN will protect government organizations and agencies, ...

From the first day of the formal launch of the NIN on August 28, 2016, all Iranian users’ traffic has occurred, by default and without choice, within this network. In this environment, the user is not disconnected from the global internet, but he or she must ...

One of the main objectives of the first and second phases of the NIN was to increase bandwidth in Iran. Until recently, internet service providers were not allowed to offer speeds faster than 128 kbps to home users. The removal of this constraint, advocated by and ...

The NIN has been developed in three phases, two of which were launched during Rouhani’s first term. Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, then deputy minister of communications, stated on February 7, 2017, that the third phase was to begin on May 17, 2017, International Telecommunications ...

Iran’s National Information Network (NIN) has emerged as the central plank of the Islamic Republic’s efforts to control its citizens’ digital access and communications. The initial concept was to create a state-controlled and censored version of the global internet, originally called the “National Internet,” after which ...

In addition to the Supreme Council of Cyberspace, other institutions play an important role in shaping internet policies and use in Iran—but they are similarly under the direct or indirect control of Khamenei. The Working Group to Determine Instances of Criminal Content is the principal body ...

Recognizing the significant role of digital communication in Iran, the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has increasingly sought to centralize control over the country’s internet policy under his authority. Toward this end, Khamenei centralized decision-making power over the internet in Iran’s Supreme Council of Cyberspace. ...

Recognizing the significant role of digital communication in Iran, the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has increasingly sought to centralize control over the country’s internet policy under his authority. Toward this end, Khamenei centralized decision-making power over the internet in Iran’s Supreme Council of Cyberspace. ...

Guards at the Gate: The Expanding State Control Over the Internet in Iran by the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), provides a detailed analysis of internet policy and technological developments in Iran over the 2013-2018 period. The report, which builds on ...

This report by the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) incorporates independent and original research undertaken by CHRI’s internet security researchers and analysts during the period from January 2017 to January 2018. CHRI conducted detailed technical analysis of Iran’s National Internet Network (NIN) and ...

To the Rouhani administration The Rouhani administration should pledge not to cut off or disrupt in any way Iranians’ access to the global internet, and it should not allow its Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (hereafter referred to as the Ministry of Communications) to ...