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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 01 2017, @08:34AM
Yup... once the badge-hats go to threatening everyone caught sending encrypted files, they will start sending hidden ones in full view.
How about hiding stegfiles in private girlfriend porn for restricted groups ( just so everyone can see the badgehats viewing porn on company time, great for their public relations ), or maybe publicly posted and terribly boring vacation movies posted to YouTube, where only certain people are privy to how to extract the payload from the carrier file. The stegged file plays just fine; if heavily burdened with a payload file, it will just look like a cheap noisy camera took the video. ( the noise actually is the encryped payload file which has to be understood how to decrypt before it can even be shown the file exists in the first place! Otherwise, it looks just like noise. )
Audio files of things like recorded classroom lectures are great... because no one has the original file to compare to, and a poorly recorded terribly noisy recording does not stand out as unusual. Never steg into anything that you did not create the master of and know there are no other copies of the master exist.
Personally, I do not like the idea of sending encrypted files unless to known businesses where the need for encryption is well understood. For me to be publicly sending and receiving numerous encrypted files would raise a red flag amongst the badge-hats, much like carrying a attache case in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco will put a target on you. If one is carrying several hundred dollars cash, don't advertise it with a locked box. Hide the stuff in a diaper or something similar. Using above-the-table file transfers is only going to get someone onto the TLA's hot sheet.
I guess what I am trying to say is that the cat is already out of the bag as far as trying to restrict covert communications. Anyone can do it. And I see no way anyone can force anyone else not to do it. By its very nature, steganographic communication takes place right under one's nose without them being aware communication is even happening.
With encryption, someone at least can get metadata on the transfer. Drive it into steganography, and one cannot even get metadata. Nothing!
I get the idea someone with lawmaking power has no idea what he's up against.