Russian authorities are stepping up their efforts to prevent the use of VPNs by individuals, as surprising blockages in recent days seem to attest.
Central VPNAnd Medizona or AppleInsider.ru It echoes the surprises of users facing VPN connections that suddenly stopped working. This is unheard of in Russia where the Kremlin, through its agency Roskomnadzor (the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Media), tries to control and limit access to information.
In recent years, companies that provide VPN services have suffered from this censorship policy. In June 2022, for example, Proton VPN was in the crosshairs of Roskomnadzor and around 20 other services Similar was forbidden before him.
The difference this time is in the method. Instead of attacking service providers, authorities block protocols, such as WireGuard, OpenVPN or L2TP mentioned among the first targets. The service is apparently running smoothly, the operators say they haven’t noticed any anomalies, but the connection is blocked.
These actions are not carried out in a haphazard manner. Mediazona states that in 2021, the central bank asked its customers to specify what type of VPN was used on their network. Possibly so as not to release obstacles blindly and instead put people’s contacts under the glass.
Not granular enough in advance, the site reports incidents within small businesses whose day-to-day activities are hampered by these new measures. The many times advanced solution is to use the Shadowsocks protocol which hides the VPN connection in an https exchange, but it requires some configuration efforts and servers accessible to individuals.
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