[HacktionLab] Emailing under internet blackout
Charlie Harvey
charlie at newint.org
Mon Jan 19 10:56:44 UTC 2026
Hi,
Briar is a similar tool - it creates an encrypted chat channel over
bluetooth, wifi, memory cards or tor.
They have a Farsi page:
https://briarproject.org/manual/fa/
I would not recommend people install it in the context of a fascist
regime. I definitely wouldn't want to explain what it was to the secret
police.
Other than that very important problem, the threat model seems to match
the situation in Iran:
"Briar is designed to resist surveillance and censorship by an adversary
with the following capabilities:
* All long-range communication channels (internet, phone network,
etc) are comprehensively monitored by the adversary.
* The adversary can block, delay, replay and modify traffic on
long-range communication channels.
* The adversary has a limited ability to monitor short-range
communication channels (Bluetooth, WiFi, etc).
* The adversary has a limited ability to block, delay, replay and
modify traffic on short-range communication channels.
* The adversary can deploy an unlimited number of devices running Briar.
* There are some users who can keep their devices secure - those who
can’t are considered, for the purposes of the threat model, to be
controlled by the adversary.
* The adversary has a limited ability to persuade users to trust the
adversary’s agents - thus the number of social connections between the
adversary’s agents and the rest of the network is limited.
* The adversary can’t break standard cryptographic primitives.
"
Cheers,
On 19/01/2026 02:16, a.praetorius at serapath.de wrote:
> https://keet.io
>
> Try keet, it has no problem with the chinese firewall.
> The biggest issue is probably getting it installed if the website is
> blocked, but you can get it from github or even somehow get the AppImage
> to them.
>
> It works offline first, so they can write and if somebody is nearby,
> they can sync messages and if that person then travels physically to
> where the internet works, the messages will reach other recipients and
> it works the other way around too. I think keet is by far the most
> mature option that exists - nothing else compares right now.
>
> While keet is closed source I know and more or less trust the team that
> is developing it. They have a decades long record of doing open source
> p2p software and the stack and runtime it is build on top of is entirely
> open source.
>
>
> On Fri, 16 Jan 2026 at 01:20, brentc <brentc at riseup.net
> <mailto:brentc at riseup.net>> wrote:
>
> __
>
> Thanks all, good advice, I've passed on.
>
> On 15/01/2026 21:28, Tim Dobson wrote:
>> I'd probably avoid emailing them for the moment.
>>
>> I'm less sure you'll get them in trouble, and more worried that
>> whatever you email may be outdated by the time it arrives - wait
>> til there's more clarity, and then raise comms by asking how
>> they're doing (which is a very neutral question and should be
>> answerable easily even if they're worried about interception).
>>
>> I hope your friends come through this fine.
>>
>> On Tue, 13 Jan 2026 at 21:22, Patrice Riemens <patrice at puscii.nl
>> <mailto:patrice at puscii.nl>> wrote:
>>
>>
>> Hi All,
>>
>> As far as I can judge from here (Rural SW France ;-), it's
>> going to be a tough job to contact yr friends in teheran in
>> the present circumstances. Won't surely work over gmail. The
>> Guardian had a good explainer on how the blackout works - it
>> appears to be very precise and even Musk's Starling is, at
>> least partially blocked - using Russian technology form the
>> war in Ukraine. yet some messgs seem to filter thru. I'd think
>> a relay of friends of friends who know a friend who manages to
>> ... etc. Pb is that you need to have contact with yr friends
>> to be able to cantact the friend of a friend who etc ... Not
>> easy, but you might have luck, or tough luck if yr queries
>> fall in the wrong hands.
>>
>> Now pray the ugly theocracy falls sooner rater than later. It
>> will.
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "brentc" <brentc at riseup.net <mailto:brentc at riseup.net>>
>> To: hacktionlab at lists.aktivix.org
>> <mailto:hacktionlab at lists.aktivix.org>
>> Sent: Tuesday, 13 January, 2026 22:01:35
>> Subject: [HacktionLab] Emailing under internet blackout
>>
>> A question came up about emailing to Iran: "I have some
>> contacts in
>> Tehran who are anti-authoritarian educators I was supposed to be
>> recording a presentation for them to show at their seminar
>> series (I've
>> done this for them before) - next week. I'm not sure what to
>> do now, I'm
>> assuming if I email them [they on gmail] I won't get through.
>> Big/stupid
>> ask - Does anyone tecchy know how an internet blackout is
>> likely to
>> work? I.e. I'm not sure whether to email my contact, could it be
>> intercepted and get him in trouble?"
>>
>> I didn't have conclusive answers. Any thoughts? I don't know
>> exactly how
>> sensitive the comms are and I gather encrypted comms hasn't
>> been set up.
>>
>> b
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> HacktionLab mailing list
>> HacktionLab at lists.aktivix.org
>> <mailto:HacktionLab at lists.aktivix.org>
>> https://lists.aktivix.org/mailman/listinfo/hacktionlab
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> HacktionLab mailing list
>> HacktionLab at lists.aktivix.org
>> <mailto:HacktionLab at lists.aktivix.org>
>> https://lists.aktivix.org/mailman/listinfo/hacktionlab
>>
> _______________________________________________
> HacktionLab mailing list
> HacktionLab at lists.aktivix.org <mailto:HacktionLab at lists.aktivix.org>
> https://lists.aktivix.org/mailman/listinfo/hacktionlab
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> HacktionLab mailing list
> HacktionLab at lists.aktivix.org
> https://lists.aktivix.org/mailman/listinfo/hacktionlab
>
--
Charlie Harvey
IT Director
New Internationalist
t: +44 (0)1865 403 249
m: +44 (0)7912 327 288
w: https://newint.org/
k: https://ox4.li/gpgkey/
** Rewire the world: https://newint.org/give **
New Internationalist is an independent not-for-profit communications
cooperative. We publish the multi-award winning New Internationalist
magazine, a range of books from non-fiction to graphic novels, and
run an ethical mail order business. Learn more at: https://newint.org/
Incorporated in the UK under no. 1005239.
Old Music Hall, 106-108 Cowley Rd., Oxford, OX4 1JE, UK
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 833 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL: <https://lists.aktivix.org/pipermail/hacktionlab/attachments/20260119/7a593848/attachment.sig>
More information about the HacktionLab
mailing list