The vast majority of Syria’s Internet connections were taken offline today. Cybersecurity intelligence provider Renesys reports that 92% of Syrian networks were yanked off the Internet ; all of the offline networks are operated by state-affiliated Syria Telecom. The outage occurred at approximately 12:30 p.m. Damascus time, and 5:30 a.m. New York time. A similar mass Internet outage took place in Egypt at the height of the anti-Mubarak revolution.

Syrian activists and Internet freedom activists worldwide, some affiliated with advocacy group Telecomix, have already begun disseminating telephone numbers and login info for free dialup Internet in Syria. The Internet outage follows several days of strategic military victories by anti-government rebels. Other large Syrian Internet outages have taken place before, but this is the first time that over 90% of the country’s Internet has been offline.

[Image: Flickr user Andreas Beer]