What they can do for bypassing blocks using VPN, TOR and proxies and why the law did not work against them. The authorities decided to ban Tor, VPN and other means of bypassing blocking. What to do? (1 photo) Why VPN services and Tor will come under attack
The bill banning means for bypassing Internet blocks, which includes VPN services and anonymizers, is in final reading. If such services refuse to block access to prohibited content, they themselves will be blocked by Roskomnadzor. If approved by the Federation Council and President Vladimir Putin, the law will come into force on November 1, 2017.
The Village figured out which services will be subject to restrictions, how they will be blocked and how this will affect users.
What will be blocked
The new law prohibits the use information systems and programs for gaining access to Internet resources blocked in Russia. The law covers not only proxy and VPN services, but also anonymous networks such as Tor and I2P. In addition, the document prohibits search engines like Google and Yandex from providing links to blocked resources.
However, the list of resources available for restriction does not end there, since sites that post information about means of bypassing blocking are heterogeneous. These include any resources with lists of VPN services and even application stores, including App Store And Google Play. Software platforms such as operating systems and their technical portals, such as Microsoft's support portal, which describes VPN setup in different Windows versions. It is also possible to restrict the operation of popular browsers that offer built-in ways to bypass blocking. Similar options are available in various versions in Opera, Chrome or Safari. Lists of VPN services and instructions for setting them up are also distributed on social networks and messengers.
However, the law provides an exception for companies’ own VPNs if these tools are available only to employees. In turn, the Internet Ombudsman under the President, Dmitry Marinichev, who called the bill “madness,” noted the impossibility of separating a VPN used for commercial purposes from a VPN used to bypass blocking.
How to block
Anonymizers and VPN services can be blocked in two ways - by IP addresses or by type of traffic.
In the case of using the first technology, already tested in Russia, Roskomnadzor will enter into the register all domain names and IP addresses of official websites of VPN services where you can purchase the product. You can also block public Tor servers that users connect to using IP.
To use the second technology, it is necessary to install DPI equipment on the networks of all operators for deep traffic analysis, which is capable of identifying VPN traffic and distinguishing it from other encrypted HTTPS traffic. DPI equipment is quite expensive, so given the large number of operators in Russia, using this technology will require a lot of time and money. This method has already been tested in China, where there is a constant arms race between the authorities and developers.
What should users do?
The experience of Asian countries like China, where the Golden Shield content filtering system has been in place since 2003, shows that limiting the operation of tools for bypassing Internet blocks does not completely limit user access to VPN services, Tor exit nodes and other means of proxying traffic.
Clients of VPN services will not notice any changes for themselves before implementing DPI equipment. Unlike sites with software distribution kits, the VPN itself is extremely difficult to block, which will require a deep understanding of the operating principles of each individual service and the structure of the network. In addition, the VPN service can quickly restructure the network, and everything will have to be done anew. In this case, the restructuring procedure can be automated - in this case, the VPN provider can create new IP addresses at least every minute. For users it will look like automatic update extensions.
There are now many VPN services around the world, and new ones are constantly appearing. The competition in the VPN market is quite high, and block all bypass tools for a short time impossible. In addition, users will be able to receive all installation files of VPN applications on forums, by mail or in instant messengers. According to the head of Roskomsvoboda, Artem Kozlyuk, 80–90% of services will remain available to Russians.
In addition, the possibility of using a dual VPN will remain and will likely develop - where a user connects to a server in one country (for example, Canada), and from there to a server in another (for example, Norway). Then the final Norwegian service will perceive the Russian user as a Canadian and will not apply blocking from the Roskomnadzor list even if both VPN services comply with Russian law.
Another option is to set up your own VPN by renting space on a foreign hosting, which will require a small investment. And in some mobile devices, for example, in Android smartphones, there is a built-in VPN function, and in the case of pre-installed programs It is simply impossible to block any VPN resource. In addition, as noted earlier, blocking will officially be allowed to bypass corporate VPN, which are used by company employees.
As for Tor, the network, in addition to the public list of keys, has a constantly updated list of servers through which you can access the necessary sites. In case of blocking public Tor nodes To connect to the network and access prohibited sites, you can use bridges, which were specially designed to bypass blocking using hidden relays. Users can take advantage of the browser's built-in bridging options or obtain new addresses.
1
What's happened?
A bill has been introduced into the Duma prohibiting services for bypassing blocking to give Russians access to prohibited sites. It's about about various kinds of intermediaries who allow you to access prohibited pages through foreign servers. In addition, the document prohibits search engines from providing links to prohibited pages.
2
Banning anonymizers? And how will it work?
The idea is quite simple. The law will clearly state that various services (for example, anonymizers), networks (for example, VPN) and programs (for example, Tor and Opera) cannot be given to Russians access to prohibited sites. Roskomnadzor will monitor such services and networks. If the department discovers that some services, networks or programs allow Russians to access blocked pages through foreign servers, employees will send a demand to the owners - please make sure that Russians cannot access such and such with your help prohibited sites. If the owners do not comply with the requirements within a month, Roskomnadzor will begin to block their servers, with the help of which users bypass blocking, and the sites where they install the desired program. And if they agree, they won’t start. The agency will create a special list of prohibited resources and give access to it to the owners of anonymizers and VPN networks, so that they themselves can monitor whether they allow Russians to watch something forbidden.
3
What about search engines?
It's simple. Now Yandex, Google and other search engines are not prohibited from providing links to blocked pages. Now they want to prohibit them from showing such links to users in Russia. They will also be given access to the list of prohibited pages, which will be maintained by Roskomnadzor. For violations, search engine owners will be fined from 500 to 700 thousand rubles.
4
We have a VPN at work. Will the problems start now?
No. The bill makes an exception for companies that use their own VPNs and other means of bypassing blocks, if these tools are available only to employees.
5
They say the coolest thing is Tor. Can it be blocked too?
Yes, Tor is also covered by the bill. Authorities can block public servers that users connect to. This list is open to everyone, and there is nothing difficult about blocking access to it.
6
So what should I do? Will the blocking now be impossible to bypass?
One way or another, it will be possible to bypass the blocking, but it may just become more difficult. Now it is difficult to answer this question clearly, because we do not know in what form the bill will be adopted (we have no doubt that it will be adopted) and how it will be implemented. But there are ways around it. For example, Tor, in addition to the public list of keys, has a constantly updated list of servers through which you can access the necessary sites. You can find out more about how Tor works and how to use the network if public nodes are blocked in our cards.
There are other ways to bypass blocking - for example, you can use not just a VPN, but a double one. Let's say you connect to a server in, say, Holland, and then - also via VPN - to a server in Denmark. And the Danish server will consider you a user from Holland, although in fact you are viewing the resource from Russia. This scheme will work even if both VPN services comply with Russian law and restrict access for Russian clients. After all, the Danish service will consider the user to be Dutch.
Chapter 13 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (CAO), introduced a year ago by a group of deputies, was voted on by 306 members of the lower house of parliament.
More than 108 thousand sites with prohibited information were blocked in Russia, but the popularity of anonymizers is growing
Now, for failure to provide Roskomnadzor with data on the owners of means of bypassing blocking, citizens will be fined in the amount of ten thousand to thirty thousand rubles. For legal entities the punishment is higher - from fifty thousand to three hundred thousand rubles.
Fines are also provided for search engines issuing links to prohibited sites. For citizens, the penalty can reach 5 thousand rubles, officials will pay from 30 to 50 thousand rubles, the highest fine for organizations is from 500 to 700 thousand rubles.
After the State Duma passes the final reading, the law will go to the upper house of parliament - the Federation Council.
Senators may consider it at their next meeting on June 20. If approved by the upper house and signed by the president, it will come into force 90 days after official publication, that is, in mid-autumn.
The amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses adopted by the State Duma are aimed at implementing the law banning anonymizers. It was adopted by parliament in July last year and came into force on November 1. The law establishes a ban on the use of information systems and programs to gain access to sites blocked in Russia. Units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB can participate in tracking the use of anonymizers; the document gives them the right to notify Roskomnadzor of identified cases for the subsequent blocking of means of bypassing restrictions.
By the way, blocking of such resources has been used since mid-April to restrict access to the Telegram messenger. In order to implement the relevant decision of the Tagansky Court of Moscow, Roskomnadzor has already blocked about 50 VPN services and anonymizers that provided access to the messenger.
In total, according to the department at the end of May, more than 108 thousand sites with prohibited information were blocked in Russia, but the popularity of anonymizers is growing. According to the head of the department, Alexander Zharov, over the past two years the number of users of such services has grown from five to seven to ten to fifteen percent. However, only a quarter of popular proxy and VPN services comply with current restrictions.
It should be noted that the requirements of both laws - both on the prohibition of the use of anonymizers and on liability for its violation - apply to all players in the digital market, both domestic and foreign.
However, the authors of the adopted law are deputies Maxim Kudryavtsev (“ United Russia"), Nikolai Ryzhak ("A Just Russia") and Alexander Yushchenko (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) - declare that they have reached "full mutual understanding" with the owners of search engines and software.
Meanwhile
On Tuesday, the State Duma adopted in the first reading a draft law allowing the conclusion of inheritance agreements and the drawing up of joint wills of spouses. The initiative was introduced by the head of the Duma Committee on State Construction and Legislation, Pavel Krasheninnikov. The bill introduces amendments to parts one and three of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, which provide for new opportunities for Russian inheritance law - to conclude inheritance agreements and draw up joint wills of spouses. As the author of the initiative explained earlier, this will help “to agree in advance on the fate of the inheritance and thereby reduce the likelihood of conflicts involving persons who may be called upon to inherit.” For example, if there is a joint will of the spouses, there is no need to divide joint property and then resolve the issue of inheritance and heirs.
New fines for leaking customer databases
The Ministry of Digital Development proposed introducing fines for leaks of personal data into the public domain.
In Russia there are more than 400 thousand personal data operators, among them hotels, carriers, companies mobile communications, banks. On their behalf, other companies collect and process information, accumulate large databases (for example, insurance agents, aggregators), which often “leak” and are used in completely different ways - by marketers, fraudsters, cold sales specialists, and so on. Operators of personal data usually blame those who collected information for them for “leaks.”
According to the project, if the operator did not control the collection of data, then he will face a fine of up to 30 thousand rubles for one identified case of “leakage”. For persons who collect data on behalf of operators, fines in the same amount are projected for violating data processing rules.
In addition, the department proposes to limit the number of organizations that can publish data about orphans on the Internet. They intend to grant this exclusive right only to federal and regional authorities, which are responsible for the formation of a state data bank on children left without parental care, and the right to process biometric personal data of orphans for their placement in families will remain with executive authorities.
According to the new bill, VPN services and anonymizers are required to cooperate with the authorities and block access to resources from the register of prohibited sites. Services that refuse to cooperate face blocking. 
In addition, this law regulates the activities of search engines: they should not provide links to blocked resources in search results. For failure to comply with the requirements, search engines face a fine of up to 700 thousand rubles.
If the bill is approved by the Federation Council and signed by the president, it will come into force on November 1, 2017.
How will this affect traffic arbitrage?
Many arbitrators use VPN services both for anonymity on the Internet and for work purposes. Most of these services are foreign companies that are unlikely to cooperate with Russian authorities, monitor the Rosskomnadzor register and limit any resources for users. Therefore, most likely, they themselves will be blocked by Roskomnadzor, which will lead to some inconvenience for arbitrators.
Fortunately, in addition to VPN, there are other options for bypassing blocking, such as, for example, VPS - virtual private service.
As for the anonymous Tor network, it also falls under the scope of the bill. But, the Tor Project has a solution specifically for such cases: hidden entrance nodes (bridges), with the help of which the network operates in other countries where it is officially blocked, such as China, Belarus and Turkey.
Partnerkin decided to find out from well-known arbitrage specialists how this will affect traffic arbitration and whether there are any alternatives to bypassing blocking?
A few days ago, a rather important event occurred - in the first reading, the State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted a bill on the “ban of anonymizers and VPNs.” After the introduction of a register of prohibited sites and the blocking of various resources, many wondered - how soon will schemes to bypass these blockings be banned? It turned out that it didn’t take that much time - only about 5 years.
June 8, 2017 - it was on this day that it was officially decided to make RuNet something like the Chinese segment of the network. Despite the fact that the law has not been formally adopted and must go through a number of procedures for its adoption, there is no doubt about the final result. Carthage will still be destroyed, and users who want something strange in the form of searching for a job on LinkedIn or communicating with their clanmates on some MMORPG from South Korea in Line, no matter how hard they want, they won’t be able to do this. In general, remember this tweet(s).
So, what have legislators prepared for us? They prepared for us a bill of a couple of dozen pages called “On Amendments to the Federal Law “On Information” information technology and on information protection." It was introduced by three deputies from different parties, but their and even their party affiliation does not play any role. Recently, laws that, in one way or another, limit the network space have been adopted almost unanimously.
It will begin to take effect 90 days after it comes into force, so the new reality will come quite quickly after all 3 readings and the president’s signature.
How will it be
The bill introduces a new key article numbered into the information law 15.8 . Officially, the article bears a long and obscure title, “Measures aimed at countering the use of Russian Federation information and telecommunication networks, information systems and programs for electronic computers to gain access to information resources, including to sites and (or) pages of sites on the Internet, access to which on the territory of the Russian Federation is limited in accordance with this Federal Law." In fact, this article describes precisely the ban on means of bypassing blocking and how this the ban is planned to be implemented. The article consists of 17 parts, written by a seasoned clerk, so it’s impossible to figure it out without a bottle. We simplified everything to the terms that are used in the industry.
The first part of the article right off the bat prohibits any service that operates in Russia from providing access to information that is prohibited in Russia in accordance with the law. In order to stop attempts to circumvent the bans, Roskomnadzor will be assigned a number of new functions:
Firstly, the supervisory service will create and maintain a list of resources prohibited in the country. Note that such a list is already maintained, so nothing has changed in this regard.
Secondly, Roskomnadzor will have to develop and approve a methodology according to which it will monitor the network space to search for services that offer the opportunity to gain access to blocked resources.
Thirdly, having found such resources, Roskomnadzor will have to identify the hosting providers (or any other persons) who hosted these resources.
Fourth, after identifying hosters, requests are sent to them (in Russian and English languages) with a requirement to provide information that will help identify those who run services to bypass blocking. It is not clear what information we are talking about. Most likely, for individuals this will be their full name, residential address, etc., and for legal entities - the name of the company, location, and possibly bank details. The date of such a request will be recorded.
Here we will digress a little and allow ourselves to note that if hosters in Russia have to fulfill all the requirements, then foreign hosters are unlikely to comply with the requirements of Roskomnadzor. For it is one thing when companies themselves provide their data to the register of organizers of information dissemination, and quite another when the hoster will have to give out the data of its client to the government of other countries. In addition to the fact that such “openness” will lead to a catastrophic decline in reputation, the hoster will violate the law on personal data of his own country.
After the hoster has received the corresponding request, within the next three days it provides Roskomnadzor with all the data it requests. After this, Roskomnadzor, based on the received data, within three days sends a request to the services themselves for bypassing blocking with a demand to stop violations and disable the ability to bypass blocking in Russia.
Having received Roskomnadzor’s requirements for restrictions, services for bypassing blocking independently (options):
- They limit the access of all Internet users to their functions (they close voluntarily, to put it simply).
- They restrict access to their functions on the territory of Russia (they are voluntarily banned from the RuNet, that is).
- They send an application to Roskomnadzor with a request to provide access to the register of prohibited sites and independently begin to block resources from this register.
What if we disagree?
If someone wants to show integrity and refuses to comply with Roskomndazor’s demands to block prohibited resources, then his end will be sad - he himself will be blocked on Russian territory in 30 days. Within 24 hours, Roskomnadzor will send a message to telecom operators with a list of “dissenter” addresses that will need to be blocked. Operators, in turn, enter addresses into the block list within 24 hours after receiving such a message.
In general, a standard blocking mechanism, only this time you will have to block VPN services, anonymizers and other similar sites.
We already agree, what should we do?
If someone at first wanted to show integrity, but then realized that it costs him too much, he can take measures to block prohibited sites and report this to Roskomnadzor. After this, within 24 hours Roskomnadzor checks the accuracy of the information, and if the resources are indeed blocked, it starts the unblocking procedure. Within 24 hours, telecom operators will be required to provide access to the “cut off” VPN.
How will the interaction take place?
Procedure for interaction with VPN services, anonymizers, technological networks and other resources that will block prohibited information will have to be developed by Roskomnadzor. The supervisory service will be obliged to provide access to the list of prohibited information to everyone who agrees with its requirements in accordance with the developed interaction procedure. In turn, the resources themselves will have to block prohibited information and comply with this order of interaction.
Search engines
Separate parts of the article provide for the responsibilities of the operator search engine. It, like block bypass services, will have access to the list of blocked sites and will be required to exclude links to prohibited sites from search results. It is interesting that the punishment in the form of blocking search engines has not yet been clearly stated - it only applies to services for bypassing blocking. So Google will remain available, unless, of course, the norm is corrected. But instead of blocking, search engines were given fines. If the search engine operator does not filter search results, or does not want to gain access to the register of prohibited sites, this will entail the imposition of an administrative fine:
- for citizens in the amount of five thousand rubles;
- for officials - fifty thousand rubles;
- for legal entities - from five hundred thousand to seven hundred thousand rubles.
Work, and we will give you a salary via VPN!
Apparently, having heeded warnings that VPNs are used for more than just reading and watching banned content, legislators left the option for companies to use the services. They, as before, will be able to use their own technologies to bypass the access ban, but only in cases where users have entered into employment agreements with them.
So now, if you want to use some kind of VPN, you will not only have to pay for access, but also enter into an employment contract with its owner. This is a new type of business. At the same time, unemployment will decrease.
It's already begun
Despite the fact that the ban on anonymizers and VPNs has yet to be introduced into the legal field, in fact, anonymizers are already banned de facto. The ban mechanism is very simple - the prosecutor's office files a lawsuit, and the court makes a decision to ban the anonymizer, since it can be used to gain access to prohibited information. On this basis, in 2016, “Chameleon”, the site Hideme.ru and a number of others were blocked.
While writing the material, another piece of news came: Roskomnadzor, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Rospotrebnadzor and the Federal Tax Service issued an interdepartmental order that allows you to block any means of bypassing blocking without a court decision. The justification is also very simple - through these resources you can play in an illegal casino, which is prohibited in Russia. Officially it sounds like this:
The presence on a website page on the Internet and (or) a program for electronic computers that allows access to a website on the Internet, a website page on the Internet, which contains prohibited information that meets the criteria specified in paragraphs 4.1.1.-4.1.6 of these Criteria included in the Unified Register.
Naturally, this description includes everything that provides access to prohibited information, including VPN. Interestingly, the order itself was registered on June 27, and was issued on May 18. Considering that such documents are not prepared in a day, the decision to block the VPN was made much earlier.
A few days ago, the supervisory service sent out updated recommendations to telecom operators on blocking Internet resources. Nothing special from old version the recommendations are no different, they only contain a mention of the preferred blocking methods in the form of DPI, open source software and purchasing already filtered traffic from an upstream provider.
Implications for the industry
For telecom operators, the changes will be minimal. Well, a few more addresses will be added to the blocking list, no big deal. There are thousands of them already. But for Runet, as a phenomenon, everything will be much more serious. In fact, a separate space is created in which it is not only impossible to access some resources, but you cannot even find out that these resources exist. Of course, one can argue that there are ordinary sites, forums, foreign Google versions, where you can find information, links and distributions.
However, the logic of events is inexorable - there should be no prohibited information on the RuNet. So the further it goes, the poorer the Russian segment will be. One after another, foreign services will leave the market or be blocked. Just some earlier (like Line or LinkedIn), some later. The vacated spaces will begin to be occupied by Russian services, which are now appearing like mushrooms after rain. Let's keep silent about their quality - there is an excellent example of Sputnik, which, even with powerful competitors in the form of Google and Yandex, is something from the late 90s. Without the opportunity to fully interact with the global industry, Russian telecom and IT will degrade (they are already looking at the successful Kaspersky with disapproval), and the further it goes, the faster the rate of degradation will increase. In the end, everything is some version of "Gwangmyeon".
On the other hand, in Africa there is no Internet at all, and no one really worries about it.
