Over the last week, the Russian authorities have likely increased their ongoing efforts to disrupt Russian citizens’ access to Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) in an attempt to pervasive domestic information control, British intelligence said in its daily report.
According to UK intel, many of the most popular VPNs have become unusable in some regions of Russia.
“VPNs are hugely popular in Russia, despite being illegal since 2017. They allow users to access objective international news sources, including about the war in Ukraine.”
VPNs likely represent the greatest single vulnerability within the Russian state’s attempts at pervasive domestic information control, UK intel concluded.
As well as increased technical disruption, the Russian state has launched a public information campaign, attempting to scare citizens into avoiding VPNs by claiming they put their personal data at risk, intel said.
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