Around the globe, barriers are being erected throughout the internet. For years, autocratic regimes have been engaged in a relentless race to fortify these barriers, even as their citizens invent increasingly sophisticated means to bypass them. The more these regimes intensify their efforts to filter and obstruct online content, the more innovative and resourceful their citizens become in devising technical workarounds to access uncensored information. However, there is a growing body of evidence suggesting that repressive governments are now considering a more drastic measure: shutting down access to the open internet entirely, potentially making such blackouts permanent.
In response to this pressing issue, a team of cybersecurity researchers has devised an ingenious solution: a trojan horse, specifically, a satellite feed that masquerades as a television station but secretly carries uncensored news and information. This solution presents a rather retro approach to a decidedly modern problem.
TV fighting oppression
Named eQsat, this program has undergone testing and is prepared for deployment during the next internet shutdown, be it in Russian-occupied Ukraine, Iran, or any of the many authoritarian regimes that regularly impede internet access.
The cybersecurity company spearheading this initiative, eQualitie, has dedicated years to creating tools designed for civil society in nations with stringent internet censorship. One such tool is Ceno, a mobile browser that connects users to the open internet and shares content peer-to-peer. When a particular website is blocked or slowed down, Ceno retrieves a copy of that website from a user who can access it without restrictions.
Nevertheless, Ceno’s vulnerability, like that of all peer-to-peer services, is that it still requires some form of external connection to deliver blocked content. In situations of complete internet shutdown, Ceno’s peer-to-peer connections are severed as well.
There exist some less reliable solutions to this problem. In certain cases, mobile internet or Wi-Fi can be beamed into areas experiencing internet blackouts. For example, there have been plans to broadcast cellular or Wi-Fi signals from Finland into Russia. In North Korea, balloons carrying USB keys provide news and entertainment to one of the most heavily censored countries worldwide. However, cell signals can be disrupted, Starlink terminals can be located, and balloons can be intercepted.
According to industry experts, the most effective way to disseminate information to a closed-off nation without being detected or thwarted is through steganography, the art of concealing information within another message. And eQsat provides an answer to the question of how to blend in most effectively.
Already broadcasting
The eQualitie team have secured space on commercial satellites and have begun broadcasting their television channel to numerous home satellite receivers across Asia and Africa. To the casual viewer, the eQualitie station will appear as static or display colour bars. However, anyone recording the channel to a USB key will discover that one of the audio tracks is, in fact, a compressed file. Once extracted on a computer, this file reveals a wealth of information.
The company has partnered with dozens of news organizations to take a snapshot of their websites and—very much like the Internet Archive or the Wayback Machine— maintain a version of their site. This is then updated daily, quarterly, or at whatever interval is deemed necessary. For Russia and Ukraine, this works out to about a gig and a half of data. Once extracted, this data can be distributed on the BitTorrent network and update the cache for a user’s Ceno browser.
Does it work?
This approach is relatively safe overall. Blocking satellite signals is challenging and unreliable. While Russia tested an anti-satellite weapon in 2021, deploying such a weapon against commercial broadcasting satellites is unlikely. Furthermore, given that the signal is beamed out to millions of households, pinpointing who is actually accessing the trojan horse is a complex task. The riskiest part of the process is uploading information to the BitTorrent network, which is why eQualitie has established machines equipped with satellite receivers that automatically receive the broadcast, extract the concealed file, and upload the information to the network.
This elaborate operation is relatively cost-effective, requiring only tens of thousands of dollars to cover a broad geographic area. However, it comes with certain limitations, primarily offering one-way communication. The reason for this, is that attempting to have users within the affected country broadcast information back through the eQsat program would put them at considerable risk.
The company acknowledges that authoritarian regimes may eventually devise countermeasures against this tactic and that they will need to be prepared to once again upgrade their systems to avoid detection.
An important research
The inspiration for eQsat partly stems from a 2021 paper by Steven Feldstein, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. In his paper, Feldstein warned that temporary internet blackouts are likely to become more frequent, with the possibility of permanent shutdowns looming on the horizon.
“Internet shutdowns remain a favoured tactic of governments to push back against mass demonstrations, entrench military coups, or cut off conflict areas from the rest of the world,” Feldstein writes.
He points out that China’s “Great Firewall,” Iran’s “filternet,” and Russia’s “sovereign internet” signify a growing trend toward state control of the internet. Governments in Belarus, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, Thailand, Myanmar, Gabon, and elsewhere are following a similar path.
As these shutdowns increase in frequency and sophistication, “democracies are increasingly frustrated about their seeming inability to help citizens overcome internet controls,” Feldstein observes.
A variety of temporary solutions
Feldstein identifies various solutions, some established and others still speculative. While there have been proposals for Wi-Fi-equipped balloons flying over Cuba or invasive satellites, as well as suggestions for beaming internet into locked-down countries, these solutions are often impractical, expensive, and unlikely to succeed, according to Feldstein.
More viable options include virtual private networks (VPNs), which enable users to bypass state firewalls and circumvent government censorship, and private servers, which allow users to operate outside the controlled internet entirely. Apps like Psiphon have successfully delivered user-friendly VPN and firewall-circumvention technology, proving highly beneficial for users in Iran, Belarus, and Russia. Google’s Jigsaw project is also working on various tools to help civil society maintain connectivity and empower independent researchers.
However, these technologies are increasingly targeted by repressive regimes, with notable success. They are generally rendered ineffective during total internet blackouts or lockdowns.
Feldstein notes that since publishing his paper in 2021, there has been a mixed record of progress in the battle against censorship. Repressive nations have become even more oppressive, while democratic countries have managed to keep up without truly surpassing them. “Nobody’s really solved the problem,” Feldstein says. “In fact, it’s not a problem that can really be solved.”
According to digital rights group AccessNow, during the first 138 days of this year, there were an estimated 80 internet shutdown incidents in 21 countries. Feldstein asserts that advocates for a free internet can only keep innovating. In this regard, eQsat stands as a prime example.
