Turkey blocks Dropbox, OneDrive, Drive, and Github to stop spread of leaked government emails

[midian182]

Turkey blocked access to several cloud storage sites and online services, including Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, and Github, as it attempted to stop the spread of almost 60,000 stolen government emails, according to Turkeyblocks.org.

Hacker group RedHack leaked 17GB worth of personal emails belonging to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Berat Albayrak, who is Erdoğan’s son-in-law.

In an order related to the investigation of RedHack members, an Ankara court confirmed that the emails are authentic.

The Daily Dot reports that RedHack said it wouldn’t leak the emails if Turkey agreed to its demands and released leftist dissidents from pre-trial detention. But the government refused; instead, it banned news coverage of the hack and requested that Twitter suspend the group’s account, which it did.

RedHack then began leaking the emails, which date from April 2000 to today. They show, among other things, how Erdoğan uses his position to control the media and even suggest which stories should be published in pro-government newspapers.

As a way of preventing the circulation of the damning emails, Turkey put a block on Github, Dropbox, and several other websites. They were issuing SSL errors, indicating blocking at a national level.

Microsoft @Onedrive now blocked in #Turkey, joining @GoogleDrive and @Dropbox in nationwide cloud storage shutdownhttps://t.co/xObmf8D00j pic.twitter.com/Kmc8761iH9

— Turkey Blocks (@TurkeyBlocks) October 8, 2016

The Register notes that while the major ISPs upheld the blocks, some of the smaller companies apparently allowed access to the sites.

Turkey Blocks reports that the government restored access to Google Drive on Sunday after the company complied with a takedown order. Access to Dropbox is also said to have now been restored.

Blocking off parts of the internet to control how its government is portrayed online isn’t a new practice for Turkey. Following a car bomb explosion in Ankara, citizens found they couldn’t access Facebook or Twitter. Wikileaks was also blocked back in July after emails from the ruling AKP party were leaked.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/66611-turkey-blocked-dropbox-onedrive-drive-github-stop-spread.html

 

[davislane1]

So basically Erdogan is playing the overt version of Clinton media game.

That's what the article title should be. "Turkey Adopts American Political Strategy to Thwart Incriminating Emails."

 

[Uncle Al]

As the Turkish government continues to move toward pro-Russia, all forms of communications will become targeted by the state control agencies. Another great Allie of the West is being turned against us .... when will our government react in a more decisive way or is democracy and freedom doomed?

 

[Peter Farkas]

Surprised??? I am not...

Uncle Al said it right, an ally of the west, moreover a NATO member is doing this... I am sure there will be serious consequences....

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Yeah, these turkish civil servants, or government officials as they like to be called are proper turkey's.

 

[Teko03]

Not going to help much...you'd basically have to block the web....VPN's, private web servers. public web servers, etc.

 

[petert]

As the Turkish government continues to move toward pro-Russia, all forms of communications will become targeted by the state control agencies. Another great Allie of the West is being turned against us .... when will our government react in a more decisive way or is democracy and freedom doomed?

Has nothing to do with moving towards a Russia, but more with the Turkish dude Erdogan which is in charge. This was forseable since end of the 90's - he has a history which anyone can look at.

 

[Nobina]

Not going to help much...you'd basically have to block the web....VPN's, private web servers. public web servers, etc.

They should hire you instead, seems like you know what you're talking about.

 

[petert]

This must have been the old drone Erdogan - a decision taken during an episode of stupidity. A large ego, and his minions do not dare to tell him that it serves no purpose.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

As the Turkish government continues to move toward pro-Russia, all forms of communications will become targeted by the state control agencies. Another great Allie of the West is being turned against us .... when will our government react in a more decisive way or is democracy and freedom doomed?

Has nothing to do with moving towards a Russia, but more with the Turkish dude Erdogan which is in charge. This was forseable since end of the 90's - he has a history which anyone can look at.

Dont worry, Erdogan's vision of a dictatorship\Muslim theocracy will soon be complete!

I feel bad for anyone stuck in turkey, watching their country fall apart, ripped to shreds by fundamentalists too stuck up their rear ends to use logic, facts, or reasoning.

 

[mbrowne5061]

Aside from the concerns about VPNs and proxies, blocking cloud storage won't be effective. They would need to also block Pastebin and it's competing services, and other 'lower/older-tech' solutions on the web. Not everything is as easy to spot online as modern sharing services.

 

[RustyTech]

As the Turkish government continues to move toward pro-Russia, all forms of communications will become targeted by the state control agencies. Another great Allie of the West is being turned against us .... when will our government react in a more decisive way or is democracy and freedom doomed?

Al, why is your friend or perhaps best friend turning away from you? Could it be because you're an @rshole? See what I'm saying here?
Perhaps it's not Turkey, but US policies that are driving their friends away.
And Turkey is doing the only thing it can - get another powerful friend so that the USA won't start a war within their borders.

 

[Uncle Al]

ROF

As the Turkish government continues to move toward pro-Russia, all forms of communications will become targeted by the state control agencies. Another great Allie of the West is being turned against us .... when will our government react in a more decisive way or is democracy and freedom doomed?

Al, why is your friend or perhaps best friend turning away from you? Could it be because you're an @rshole? See what I'm saying here?
Perhaps it's not Turkey, but US policies that are driving their friends away.
And Turkey is doing the only thing it can - get another powerful friend so that the USA won't start a war within their borders.

ROFLMAO!!!! Rusty, I am officially nominating you for the first head transplant! ...... no brain required ......

 

[mbrowne5061]

As the Turkish government continues to move toward pro-Russia, all forms of communications will become targeted by the state control agencies. Another great Allie of the West is being turned against us .... when will our government react in a more decisive way or is democracy and freedom doomed?

Al, why is your friend or perhaps best friend turning away from you? Could it be because you're an @rshole? See what I'm saying here?
Perhaps it's not Turkey, but US policies that are driving their friends away.
And Turkey is doing the only thing it can - get another powerful friend so that the USA won't start a war within their borders.

I'm sure the Islamic fundamentalism, and the anti-American politics that seem to so often accompany it, has nothing to do it. /s

 

[Raveb2099]

Just block the entire internet.... or use a separate intranet for all gov functions and communications