There’s been a ramp up in Internet blocking and what appears to be government-sponsored denial-of-service attacks across several repressive, non-Arab regimes since the Arab Spring uprisings, a State Department official told lawmakers Friday.It’s not clear, though, whether those countries are cracking down in response to uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa or if they’re simply responding to local issues, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Daniel Baer told congressional members of the Helsinki Commission, an independent government agency that helps guide the United States’ role in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20110715_1793.php