Craig Labovitz from Security to the Core has some interesting observations on the Iranian firewall. I was most interested in what traffic isn’t filtered:
While the rapidly evolving Iranian firewall has blocked web, video and most forms of interactive communication, not all Internet applications appear impacted. Interestingly, game protocols like xbox and World of Warcraft show little evidence of government manipulation.
Perhaps games provide a possible source of covert channels (e.g. “Bring your elves to the castle on the island of Azeroth and we’ll plan the next Ahmadinejad protest rally?”)
Of course, World of Warcraft has not escaped the scrutiny of the ODNI and others in the United States. For commentary, see these posts at Danger Room (here and here) and Schneier on Security.
