The mainstream media have been reporting that Nokia Siemens sold Iran their deep-packet inspection system. Nokia Siemens report that they only sold them 'lawful-interception' software for voice calls. According to the company,
"The restricted functionality monitoring center provided by Nokia Siemens Networks in Iran cannot provide data monitoring, internet monitoring, deep packet inspection, international call monitoring or speech recognition..."

The 'restricted functionality' phrase is telling as it implies that the system they sold has this functionality but that it had been disabled. Nokia Siemens did sell such kit so the company have a duty to explain technically how it 'restricted funcationality'. That's irrelevant just now though since all those features can be farmed off to machines running existing off the shelf applications or their own bespoke versions. The next thing the company states though seems to totally undermine it's initial denial.
"Nokia Siemens Networks provided equipment to Iran last year under the internationally recognized concept of "lawful intercept". That relates to intercepting data for the purposes of combating terrorism, child pornography, drug trafficking and other criminal activities carried out online, a capability that most if not all telecom companies have".

So Nokia Siemens did provide equipment for intercepting data online and combating online criminal activities, such as homosexuality?

Network engineers in Iran have seemingly reported signs of deep packet inspection, and the suddenly slow speed of internet connection times to Iran have been cited as further proof. The connection time is explainable many other ways, such as normal traffic being greatly increased or the fact that the government is throttling the bandwidth. I don't know any way safe way to test for dpi occuring, short of risking arrest by burying an incriminating message and waiting for the police, which in Iran just now could mean the death penalty for spying. If you are properly encrypted then you will be safe online, it is voice calls that sink most people. Even if the newtwork engineers were motivated just now, they will be sinking under a sea of data. The fact Iranians were using page reload apps to DDoS government sites suggests the government engineers aren't either able or willing to fight back.

The Nokia Semeins statement also aid "On March 31st, 2009 Nokia Siemens Networks and Perusa Partners Fund I L.P., a private investment firm advised by Munich based Perusa GmbH, successfully closed the sale of Nokia Siemens Networks’ Intelligence Solutions business to Perusa".

This too is strange, because investment funds aren't renowned for buying blue-chip high-tech divisions. Nokia Siemens aren't noticably suffering stock problems, they are still bidding for other companies. Perusa haven't bought anything like this before, they seem to be asset strippers. Also odd is that apart from todays announcement from Nokia Seimens, there is no mention of that online, even on Nokia and Perusa Gmbhs own websites.

I did find this industry bumph on cryptome though, again strange since it suggests Nokia Seimens were the main sponsor of a market show in February, only to sell that business in March. That would be suspicious even if they hadn't only announced that today, once they have been criticised in the press. Notice they describe themselves as a trusted reliable mainstay in the market.

" Following are sponsors of:
Intelligence Support Systems for Lawful Interception, Criminal Investigations and Intelligence Gathering, 24-29 February 2009, Dubai.
 http://www.issworldtraining.com/ISS_MEA/sponsors.cfm

Nokia Siemens Networks

Our track record gives evidence of our deep understanding of security issues inside military, MOI and other security-sensitive organizations. We believe ourselves to be the best experts in the global field of intelligence solutions. And we are proud of our excellent, long term customer relationships which are based on mutual trust, reliability and stability

In our worldwide Monitoring Center projects, training, service and consultancy have always been a mainstay. As we strive to become the global number one in unreserved customer satisfaction, we have now formalized these aspects into our '24/365 Lifecycle Management'.

Making the world safer...
...with trend-setting intelligence solutions "



 http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com/global/Press/Press+releases/news-archive/Provision+of+Lawful+Intercept+capability+in+Iran.htm

 http://cryptome.info/0001/li-biz-mania.htm

 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124562668777335653.html