Russia Says It Will Soon Begin Blocking Major VPNs (torrentfreak.com) 75
Russian telecoms watchdog Roscomnadzor will start blocking major VPNs including NordVPN, ExpressVPN, IPVanish and HideMyAss, following through with its threat back in March. At the time, ten major VPN providers were ordered to begin blocking sites present in the country's national blacklist -- but almost all of them didn't comply. TorrentFreak reports: When questioned on the timeline for blocking, Roscomnadzor chief Alexander Zharov said that the matter could be closed within a month. If that happens, the non-compliant providers will themselves be placed on the country's blacklist (known locally as FGIS), meaning that local ISPs will have to prevent their users from accessing them. It is not yet clear whether that means their web presences, their VPN servers, or both. In the case of the latter, it's currently unclear whether there will be a battle or not. TorGuard has already pulled its servers out of Russia and ExpressVPN currently lists no servers in the country. The same is true for OpenVPN although VyprVPN still lists servers in Moscow, as does HideMyAss. Even if Roscomnadzor is successful in blocking any or all of the non-compliant services, there are still dozens more to choose from, a fact acknowledged by Zharov.
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Slashdot only allows anonymous users to post 10 times per day (more or less, depending on moderation). A user from your IP has already shared his or her thoughts with us that many times. Take a breather, and come back and see us in 24 hours or so. If you think this is unfair, please email posting@slashdot.org with your MD5'd IPID, which is e9e479d1bb423ab449ba10dcc30ba485. Let us know how many comments you think you've posted in the last 24 hours.
I routinely conceive of 10 allegedly intelligent things to post a week, and I'm considerably optimistic; not that I don't post those five losers, anyway.
But, yeah, likening the site that still allows GNAA posts after 20+ years to Russia-level suppression of free speech is astonishingly insightful.
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If only Facebook would limit the number of posts that bots and paid fraudulent posters could make in a day...
And how to tell if they're bots (require a CAPTCA, perhaps on the 5th post...?). How to tell if they're fraudulent? Well, that's what triggered me to respond to an article about blocked VPN access. I suppose Facebook might not want to prevent its users from connecting over a VPN - there could be legitimate reasons for that. But how about not allowing creation of an account for a supposed U.S. cit
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FD: I don't use the Facebook, but I suspect the amount of interest they have in preventing fraudulent posters is finite.
Since a reported 80+% of their income is from advertising, there is some incentive for them to appear to care deeply; yet, it's entirely plausible they might settle for security theater over the more costly effective security.
It will come for the whole internet. (Score:3, Informative)
China yesterday. Russia today. US, AU, Europe tomorrow.
It's inevitable. The internet has got to be put back in the bottle, according to those who would deem themselves your masters. It was a historical accident that it unfolded like it did, and that personal computing was personal computing rather than data broker and ad agency computing at the time. Those masters were caught off guard.
But they have learned, and the internet will be slowly turned back into what they want: something to control the masses, not something for the masses to have control.
We're seeing it all over. One piece here, the next piece there. Two steps forward, three steps back.
So what do we do? Those who want freedom? Can we start anew? Tunneling over this internet is going to be harder and harder due to blocking and severe consequences for those who try to get around. And if we CAN start anew, how do we prevent the same thing from happening all over again, except much faster this time now that the "masters" are aware of what's possible with computing? How can we get enough people to care about freedom, not just ultimate convenience?
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Start a forum, blog, webpage.
Think about what made the internet great in the past.
Usenet, IRC, websites, ftp.
Put a new GUI over tech that worked as it was not in the control of one gov/social media brand.
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In Soviet Putinstan, Privacy Networks You!
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China yesterday. Russia today. US, AU, Europe tomorrow.
In case of the US, it's Facebook, Twitter and YouTube who already do any censoring that's needed, so there's little need to block any VPNs in the US. Not too many know the websites where they can be heard
I believe (Score:5, Informative)
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Meanwhile the US government may or may not have just tested an Internet Kill Switch.
A tool for tyrants, as the article suggests, is more likely to eventually be used for oppression in a crisis than protection from some terrorist.
Don't build such tools in the first place.
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There are several reasons why it's not happening in Russia:
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What about personal VPNs? (Score:1)
Just rent a host from any major cloud provider with Russian servers and then install your own VPN server on it. Doubt they'd block firms doing major business there although it's not hard to simply update an IP blocklist. My VPN providers all include Russian servers but not included on the list in the story.
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And users don't need a VPN provider to use a VPN, they need a single-core VPS which can be obtained for the around monthly cost of a VPN and without making a traceable payment.
Scripts like Streisand [github.com] mean that a user can put together their own VPN server (and Tor OBFS4 private bridge) on a cheap VPS paid with Monero.
How can countries who claim to 'ban VPNs' ever hope to ban every VPS provider in the world?
The time to get out was 1989-2019 (Score:1)
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Yet the NSA and GCHQ have math ideas like Logjam to work on the VPN issue.
1. A VPN is secure in Russia. Russia can not allow further VPN use to hide CIA/MI6 color revolution efforts.
2. The free West only allows VPN use as they can collect it all. Should that change the free West will block VPN use.
3. Russia can collect on VPN users too but does not want to tell the world it can.
Who in Russia will go asking about
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No blocking in the free West as collection still works AC
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knowing nothing really definitive about it
You have to assume the worse. You don't have to brute force VPN to track where the signal is going. It is far more practical to collect information and know your enemy than it is to generically block it and remain blind.
The best is to work out a one time pad, or at least a *once in a blue moon* pad. VPN/Tor protocols just draw unwanted attention. It's like shooting a flare.
Re: ALLOWING ANONIMITY IS THE PROBLEM!!! (Score:1)
Says the âoeanonymous cowardâ? Why donâ(TM)t you post under your real name and practice what you preach?
Money (Score:2)
Big mother (Score:2)
Has nobody translated 1984 into Russian yet?
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