Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps hacked into 29 Web sites affiliated with U.S. espionage networks, Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency reported on Sunday.

Iran's government, looking to quell opposition, is shutting down Google's Gmail e-mail service within the country, reports said today.

An inspection of the proxy servers offered up online over the past few days as a way to help Iranians maintain access to unfiltered Web content, shows that the servers are being hosted in as many as 87 countries.

An analysis of the network traffic in and out of Iran over the last few days during the turmoil surrounding the election is offering a clearer picture of how the manipulation of Internet traffic within the country is affecting access to certain kinds of online content.

The unrest in Iran is serving as a warning on how easy it is for individuals and groups to use a social networking tool like Twitter to mobilize a cyber-army against a political or commercial target anywhere in the world.

Despite attempts to consolidate Internet traffic, the Iranian government has so far been unwilling to shut down its entire Internet infrastructure, according to analysis from security vendor Arbor Networks.

Twitter Inc. late yesterday acknowledged that the U.S. State Department had contacted the Web company about delaying its scheduled site maintenance because of the number of Iranians who have been using Twitter to get information out about the political situation there.

Iran's government in recent days has tried to cut off Internet access for most of its election protestors by shutting down routers at the nation's perimeters, ripping satellite dishes off roofs, cutting cables and turning off telephone switching networks.

One month after a disputed presidential election sparked widespread unrest in Iran, the country's government has initiated a cyber-crackdown that is challenging hackers across the globe to find new ways to help keep Iranian dissidents connected to the Web.

As the Internet becomes a more important path for information between Iran and the rest of the world, Google has added support for Persian to its Google Translate service.