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Russia has banned VPNs capable of circumventing website blocking, and will require users of chat apps to have a phone number associated with their accounts:
Vladimir Putin has banned virtual private networks (VPNs) and Tor in a crackdown on apps that allow access to websites prohibited in Russia. The law, signed by Mr Putin, was passed by Russia's parliament last week and will now come into force on 1 November. A second law to ban anonymous use of online messaging services will take effect on 1 January next year.
It would make it easier for the state to snoop on citizens' browsing habits, one internet security expert suggested.
The laws signed by Mr Putin are meant only to block access to "unlawful content" and not target law-abiding web users, the head of the lower house of parliament said, according to the RIA news agency.
One feature of the second law is the provision to require internet operators to restrict users' access if they are found to be distributing illegal content.
Also at Engadget, ZDNet, RT, TechCrunch, and CNET.
Related: Apple Capitulates, Removes Unlicensed VPN Apps From China App Store
(Score: 2) by mendax on Tuesday August 01 2017, @12:45AM (4 children)
It's ironic that the Russians are banning Tor. It's unlikely to change much because Tor was originally designed to be used in repressive countries such as Iran that heavily restricted access to the Internet. As Russia becomes more repressive Tor use is likely to rise, not drop.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by edIII on Tuesday August 01 2017, @01:20AM (3 children)
No to mention how small these devices can be now. It's not like a Russian has to hide something the size of a small recreational vehicle in a garage.
The Pocket CHIP is a very small system and I suspect that there will be many such systems in place. Most likely with hacked wireless connections to businesses and residences. If I was a Russian and still needed to communicate, creating such illicit and hidden connections would be the first thing on my To-do list.
Just how are the secret police going to round somebody up when the real trick might be finding the device first? Think of all the electrical closets and dmarcs that are just waiting to be hijacked.
PoE ;)
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by jmorris on Tuesday August 01 2017, @02:31AM (1 child)
It is ok to be dumb, but advertising it is rarely a good idea.
Russia is a nation state with the resources that go with that and almost no concerns with what we would call "civil liberties." If they actually outlaw TOR and mean it, it is done in Russia. Use their control of the entry and egress points, plus any internal ISP they care to monitor plus the power of "big data" to generate a map of TOR/VPN IP addresses engaging in traffic. They can't know who is doing what unless they have an exploit but they do not need that, they simply want to end it. Throw most of those addresses off the network, most of the remainder will get the hint. The problem is now a lot smaller, consisting almost entirely of hard cases. Wait a month and simply arrest every one of them still using TOR/VPN. No, your antics won't stop a nation state's secret police long, especially once the chaff of the casual users is removed. Examine their computers. Forget encryption, rubber hose crypt-analysis is cheap and effective. Execute the "most dangerous" thousand traitors. Move on to the next problem, because TOR ain't one anymore and won't be anytime soon.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 02 2017, @04:41AM
" Execute the "most dangerous" thousand traitors. Move on to the next problem, because TOR ain't one anymore and won't be anytime soon."
Then the USA will carpet nuke Russia, because of killing USA's guys.
USA has all important infrastructure outside of cities.
(Score: 1) by tftp on Tuesday August 01 2017, @04:28PM
Just like about anywhere in the world, this law is not going to be used against *everybody*. It will be used selectively, when the government wants to incarcerate someone but has no other crime to pin to him. When you know who the person is, it is not too difficult to locate all the illegal routers and VPNs - just power up his PC and see what interfaces it has configured... It's not like everyone is going to run around with Tails on a CD.