The vast majority of Syria's Internet connections were taken offline today. Cybersecurity intelligence provider Renesys reports that 92% of Syrian networks were yanked off the Internet [3]; all of the offline networks are operated by state-affiliated Syria Telecom. The outage occurred at approximately 12:30 p.m. Damascus time, and 5:30 a.m. New York time. A similar mass Internet outage took place in Egypt at the height of the anti-Mubarak revolution.

Syrian activists and Internet freedom activists worldwide, some affiliated with advocacy group Telecomix, have already begun disseminating telephone numbers and login info for free dialup Internet in Syria [4]. The Internet outage follows several days of strategic military victories by anti-government rebels. Other large Syrian Internet outages [5] have taken place before, but this is the first time that over 90% of the country's Internet has been offline.

[Image: Flickr user Andreas Beer [6]]