This is a sample of the operation of the anti-scam filter that the authorities would have done without. This Saturday until noon, many Internet users who accessed the links of Telegram instant messaging conversations finally saw a page of the Ministry of the Interior. With an alert message: “You have been redirected to this Home Office page because you tried to connect to a site with child pornography images.”
Terrorism and child pornography
On Twitter, netizens immediately noticed the error, starting with Cécile Morange, a network technician, who posted a technical explanation of the problem. A mistake made by the police that two internet service providers confirmed to the World.
Since 2015, authorities have been able to block sites that advocate terrorism or contain elements related to child pornography. To do this, they send a request to Internet access providers, who are then in charge of applying this blocking and sending Internet users to an official warning page.
The authorities have not yet given an official explanation. The error could stem from the transmission of a generic address that refers to the entire Telegram platform (de facto blocking all links to the site), rather than likely Telegram conversations hosting child pornography content identified by the police.
dns blocking
This blocking is possible thanks to the operation of the DNS (Domain Name System) file, managed by Internet service providers for their clients. This is a directory that matches the address of a website (eg bfmtv.com) to the IP address (a series of numbers). In fact, it is this IP address that a computer “requests” to display a web page.
During a blocking request, the authorities transmit website addresses to the main operators, so that they modify the corresponding IP address in the DNS, to replace it with that of the alert page of the Ministry of the Interior. A user who enters the address of a blocked site, for example, of a terrorist nature, will be sent to this new IP address. A system also known as “lying DNS”.
It is this same operation that should allow the creation of the anti-scam filter, recently announced by the government. In the same way, the authorities will have to create lists of fraudulent sites, which the operators will have to use to block them when an Internet user tries to connect to them.
This Saturday, Internet users also noticed that the page of the Ministry of the Interior contained a computer code capable of recording the attempt of the Internet user to visit the Telegram conversations in question, denouncing a risk of tracking. “It’s not acceptable,” said Renaissance MP Eric Bothorel.
Source: BFM TV
