2023-08-10 17:13:04
Russian authorities are stepping up their efforts to prevent the use of VPNs by individuals, as sudden blockages in recent days seem to attest.
VPN Central, Mediazona or AppleInsider.ru echo the surprises of users faced with VPN connections that suddenly no longer work. This is not unheard of in Russia where the Kremlin, through the Roskomnadzor agency (Federal Service for the Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media), is trying to control and curb access to information.
In recent years, companies offering VPN services have suffered from this censorship policy. In June 2022, for example, Proton VPN was in the crosshairs of Roskomnadzor and about 20 other services Similar had been similarly blocked before him.
The difference this time is in the method. Rather than attacking service providers, the authorities are blocking protocols, such as WireGuard, OpenVPN or L2TP cited among the first targets. Apparently the service is running smoothly, operators say they have noticed no anomaly, but communication is blocked.
These actions are not carried out in a haphazard manner. Mediazona recalls that in 2021, the Central Bank had asked its customers to specify the type of VPN that was used on their network. Probably so as not to launch blockages blindly and rather put under glass the connections of individuals.
It is not granular enough a priori, the site reports incidents that have occurred within small companies whose daily activities are hampered by these new actions. A solution that has been advanced several times is to use the Shadowsocks protocol which hides a VPN connection in an https exchange, but it requires some configuration effort and servers accessible to individuals.
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