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Comment by tomtoise | Hacker News Reader

Very, very long read. I've just finished it and I guess it shows how phone metadata can be used constructively to forensically implicate criminals in this way.

One thing, what does the article mean when it says

"Hezbollah has already stopped using public cell networks in favor of closed ones"? Any ideas?

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It is well-known fact in Lebanon they have their own.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2008/05/20086142340...

I hate this because it only validates USG reasons for the belief in strictly regulated communications, but this means Hezbollah runs a block whole network they cannot easily tap or monitor at the border of its interaction with regulated national companies.

Keep in mind the Internet in Lebanon is also a joke, known as WaitNet (Unter-Net in Arabic), and everyone uses 2G and 3G phones at crazy prices to do anything of value, compounded with afternoon power outages every day (especially in Beirut and major cities). So, cell phones are the best way of doing business, and Hezbollah can run its own network with impunity.

Or it gets pissy and shuts down an airport with a shit fit. Read my other post in this thread.

I recall working for a Lebanease company in London whist the Civil war was on even getting a phone line to connect was a lottery.

When we did mange to get one the Directors PA used to keep the line open so that every one who needed to talk to head office could use the line.

Interesting, I was thinking something like OpenBTS but if internet access in Lebanon is really that slow then I guess not.

Well, this is second-hand. I never did anything beyond quick cafe internet access. But I cannot find the joke ISP page that used to exist. But even the BBC has articles dating to 2011 about this.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-15266851

Even Egypt (EGYPT!) has had better stories than this, largely based to the early 2000's Zaki technocrat regime, so there is a great deal of resentment at how these telco regimes have fucked it up.

Hezbollah owns some cell networks in S. Lebanon, they use these networks to both provide services to the public and for wartime communications. They apparently offer better prices and service than other corporate players in Lebanon, which has angered the government since many of these competing companies are owned by family members of the government officials. In addition Hezbollah has a fairly advanced fibre backbone and decent information security protections.

There is a bunch of information on Hezbollah communication networks and COMSEC on wikileaks:

>"This is a secondary communication system to be used in the event of war and to guide officials, commanders and partisans to their point of duty, which Hizbullah does not determine in advance."

- https://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/91/91224_-insight-insight...

>"The government has no real means of dismantling Hezbollah's communication network, which is critical to the group's defense. Much of Hezbollah's communication network is strategically intertwined with Lebanon's national networks. It heavily exploits the existing infrastructure of fiber-optic cables and standard telephone wires. Simultaneously, the organization maintains its own independent networks. The most important of these is it mobile phone network which was instrumental in its combat operations against Israeli forces in the summer of 2006."

- https://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/91/911136_lebanon-violenc...

See also word doc: "Hezbollah’s Tactical Communications Network" at https://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/16/167079_final-draft-.ht...

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