The recent public rallies over contested election results in Iran have led to a bloody government crackdown on protesters and a clampdown on all social networks in the country.

Psiphon Inc., a Toronto-based Web filter circumvention technology provider also headed by Deibert has been active in distributing "nodes" that push BBC Persian, Radio Farda, YouTube and Facebook to Iran-based computer users. Although a Canadian organization, Psiphon is funded entirely by U.S. and UK sources.

The use of Web-based strategies to destabilize government and commercial networks or muzzle public access to information and online conversation is escalating.

Just last week, major sites in South Korea and the U.S. were hit by a series of DDoS attacks. The attacks, earlier said to be emanating from North Korea was traced yesterday by a Vietnamese researcher to a server of a UK-based IP television company in the UK.

Also this week, an attacker who on Monday left behind a pro-China note as the two countries worked through a diplomatic spat. The Web site is also loading slowly, possibly signaling a DDoS attack.