vpn's to be banned in russia

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-40774315

"Vladimir Putin has banned virtual private networks (VPNs) and Tor in a crackdown on apps that allow access to websites prohibited in Russia."

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

Clarification here:

https://www.cactusvpn.com/vpn/russian-duma-voted-ban-vpns/

[blackbird71]

blackbird71 last edited by

China has already passed such rules which take effect in February 2018. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-10/china-is-said-to-order-carriers-to-bar-personal-vpns-by-february

Its almost as if an iron curtain is slowly descending on parts of the world - again.

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

Yes, but it probably won't be as effective as it once was. Kind of a whackamole game for the censors as there will be always some way to circumvent it.

This looks interesting because it would become part of the infrastructure:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/tapdance-refraction-networking-decoy-routing-test-usenix-1.4249177

[blackbird71]

blackbird71 last edited by

The concept is indeed interesting. Thanks for the heads-up. However, the real problem arises that whatever is used to flag the TapDance mechanism at cooperating sites may also eventually be detected by a determined censor and blocked. More seriously, the concept requires a TapDance software tool to be installed by the user; but in at least some of the censoring nations, the possession of such a tool installed on a system could (and would) be declared illegal in a major way. Hence detection of the TapDance technique being used would lead directly to legal sanctions on the computer owner/user through traffic-tracing back to his IP. In some censoring nations, those sanctions are extremely serious, particularly if the user has installed a covert censorship-avoidance tool on his system which implies deliberate intent to circumvent.

The Slitheen concept mentioned in the article seems more covert and thus probably more secure, resembling steganography in its ability to hide information. Unfortunately, just as with steganography, it's restricting and cumbersome to employ such embedment for large or dynamic information packets.