[LINK] Deep Packet Inspections by Aussie ISPs

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Linkers,

Not sure the real story here (Journos?) besides it seems that Deep Packet
Inspection by Australian ISPs (piss off!!) is alive and perving routinely.

For example, AAPT 21% in early 2010 (see below) ..

Jose Vilches  October 21, 2011, 5:30 PM EST
		        
Back in 2009 Google, and a group of partners, formed the Measurement Lab, 
an open project of distributed servers meant to help researchers gauge 
just how well an internet connection is working, and help customers 
determine if their ISP is blocking or throttling particular applications. 

Though we haven't heard from them in a while, this week the group has 
posted an interesting data set that highlights the evolution of ISP 
throttling in a number of countries.

The study in question includes BitTorrent throttling percentages of ISPs 
in dozens of countries spanning the two-year period between April 2008 
and May 2010 ...


http://dpi.ischool.syr.edu/MLab-Data.html

Using Network Data to Detect ISP Deep Packet Inspection

Network transparency cuts both ways. It can be exploited to engage in 
surveillance of Internet service providers as well as Internet users. In 
order to better understand DPI use and the scope of its deployment, the 
project makes use of crowdsourced network monitoring data. So far, we 
have used data from a test known as Glasnost, which was developed by 
German researchers to detect blocking or throttling of BitTorrent and 
other peer to peer (P2P) file sharing protocols. The detailed workings of 
the Glasnost test are described in Dischinger, Marcon, et al (2010). 

Thanks to an initiative known as the Measurement Lab (MLab), supported by 
Google, the New America Foundation and the PlanetLab Consortium, the 
Glasnost test allows end users all over the world to test whether their 
ISP is blocking or throttling BitTorrent and other protocols. The results 
are stored and made available to researchers. The Glasnost data begins in 
April 2008 and continues to the present time. An Internet user who runs 
the Glasnost test can see whether BitTorrent is completely blocked, 
slowed down (throttled) or running normally. Processing the Glasnost 
data, used a method derived from van Eeten,Bauer, Asghari, & Tabatabaie, 
(2010).

This feature of this web site will be developed more extensively as we 
process more data and develop additional tools for searching and 
visualizing the results. For now, we show results for the period April 
2008 - May 2010 .... (snip) ..

Country | Operator Name | Year & Quarter | Percent of Tests Showing DPI 

2008 Q2
AU iiNet 2008 Q2  10% 
AU SingTel Optus 2008 Q2  10% 
AU Telstra 2008 Q2  5% 
AU Internode 2008 Q2  8% 
AU AAPT 2008 Q2  21% 

2008 Q3
AU SingTel Optus 2008 Q3 17% 
AU Telstra 2008Q3 5%
AU iiNet 2008Q3  17%
AU Internode 2008Q3 8%
AU Primus Telecom 2008Q3 7% 
AU AAPT 2008Q3  8%

2008 Q4
AU SingTel Optus 2008Q4  14%
AU Telstra 2008Q4  2% 
AU iiNet 2008Q4  10% 
AU Internode 2008Q4  0%
AU AAPT 2008Q4  0%

2009 Q1
AU SingTel Optus 2009Q1  13%  
AU iiNet 2009Q1 15% 
AU Telstra 2009Q1  11%
AU Internode 2009Q1  13% 
AU AAPT 2009Q1  15%  
AU Primus Telecom 2009Q1  6% 

2009 Q2
AU Telstra 2009Q2  9% 
AU SingTel Optus 2009Q2  26% 
AU iiNet 2009Q2  15% 
AU Internode 2009Q2  10% 
AU AAPT 2009Q2  38%
AU Primus Telecom 2009Q2  25% 


2009 Q3
AU Telstra 2009Q3  10%  
AU SingTel Optus 2009Q3  23%  
AU iiNet 2009Q3  11% 
AU Internode 2009Q3  3%
AU Primus Telecom 2009Q3  0%


2009 Q4
AU Telstra 2009Q4  6%
AU SingTel Optus 2009Q4  12%
AU iiNet 2009Q4  5%
AU Internode 2009Q4  3%
AU AAPT 2009Q4  21% 
AU Primus Telecom 2009Q4  6%

2010 Q1
AU Telstra 2010Q1  5%  
AU iiNet 2010Q1  7% 
AU SingTel Optus 2010Q1  7%
AU Internode 2010Q1  7%
AU AAPT 2010Q1  21% 
AU Primus Telecom 2010Q1  9% 


You can view data by country, operator name, time period (quarter), and 
by the range of valid tests conducted. 

The column on the far right shows the percentage of times Glasnost tests 
indicated that the ISP was manipulating BitTorrent using DPI. 

Glasnost seems to generate false positives of around 10% prior to August 
2009 and of 4-5% after that - so some ISPs who do not throttle BT at all 
may show some positive results. The number of valid tests is important 
because the more valid tests done, the more reliable the results in the 
last column. E.g., ISPs for whom we have only 11-30 tests per quarter 
(only 1-2 tests per week) will be highly variable and thus less reliable 
than ISPs for whom we have >450 tests per quarter. We do not show results 
for ISPs with less than 10 results per quarter.

---

Cheers
Stephen