The warning was issued by the renowned IT specialist Natalia Kaspersky.
Kaspersky wrote on her Telegram channel:
"In the frenzy of fighting against circumvention of blocks, Roskomnadzor (abbreviated as RKN) has taken down half of the services of Runet (the Russian Internet - ed.). No, this is not an enemy raid or an attack by external actors or malicious foreign hackers. This is our own RKN finally taking a serious stance against tunneling and traffic protection services, also known as VPNs.
Let me explain for the uninitiated. A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a way to organize a secure communication channel over the public internet. Essentially, a VPN creates a 'tunnel' within the global network through which user data passes in an encrypted form. The first protocol for tunneling traffic appeared in 1996. So this is already a fairly mature technology. Over 30 years, it has become widely used - both by individuals and commercial companies, as well as the public sector. As I mentioned yesterday, the Russian public sector alone purchased VPNs worth 20 billion rubles last year.
The widespread use of VPNs means that VPN tunnels permeate all network traffic, using various protocols. Often these protocols coincide with those used, for example, by banks. If you try to block these protocols, you will get what we observed yesterday. It’s like trying to block the lymphatic system to prevent lymphoma. How long will the body last after such 'help'?
In general, the modern Internet has several complexly intertwined fundamental layers. Try to remove any of them - and the entire system will collapse. And there is currently no other Internet that is not so intertwined with the global one.
Yesterday we spent 1.5 hours discussing this problem with technicians who are well-versed in traffic. Their verdict is unequivocal - there is no technical possibility to block VPNs without disrupting the operation of the entire Internet. And - importantly! - the more effort and resources are invested in the DPI blocker, the worse everything will work.
So, comrades, let’s take screenshots of interesting websites, withdraw as much cash as possible, and prepare to listen to messages on the radio about external enemies who once blocked our beloved Runet.
P.S. By the way, Minister Shadayev stated yesterday in a chat for IT specialists that blocking VPNs is a necessary measure to avoid imposing administrative penalties for using this technology. This is just classic - we know how to protect you from threats (spoiler - last year, fraudsters stole 300 billion rubles from Russian citizens and no one protected them) and therefore we will forbid you to protect yourselves. And if you try, we will punish you."
