One of Russian Government’s website belonging to a local administrative entity was hacked recently by crypto hackers who not only trolled the victim and even offered free Bitcoins to the website visitors.
However, as of today, the control of the website has been taken back but the Russian Government is annoyed and has been taking targeted actions website operators. Recently, 6 VPN service providers have been blocked by the Russian Government because the Government thinks that the VPNs are allowing direct access to data which is usually prohibited in the country.
Roskomnadzor, is the Russia’s regulator which oversees and regulations the entire communication sector in Russia. The regulator is currently taking targeted actions against some of the VPN service providers of Russia. According to an official of Roskomnadzor, the enforcement action is needed for the time being as there has been violation of the law.
He said that the Russian Government has restricted access to some data and information. However, the access has been continuously breached by the blocked VPN service providers because they were allowing direct access to visitors. There is a prohibition of what information is for public use and not every data or information is public information, claimed the official.
There was recently an unfortunate even in which one of Russian Government’s owned website was hacked into by crypto hackers. What was more alarming was that the same website was attacked twice in a day and the hackers took full control of it. Later on, the hackers even launched a fake Bitcoin giveaway offering.
They offered the visitors the chance to win fractions of Bitcoin in the first place. Then they suggested that every visitor to a certain website link will be rewarded with a US$ 1,000 in the form of BTC. The hackers continued to troll the website owner until the website was restored with the intervention of computer geniuses.
It is suggested in a Russian newspaper that closing down of VPNs is the aftermath of the recent hack attack. Roskomnadzor said that the enforcement action against certain VPN providers has been taken under the decree which came into being in February, 2020. The authority further informed that a total of 6 VPNs have been blocked.
The blocked VPNs include IPvanish VPN, Hola VPN, Nord VPN, Express VPN, Speedify VPN and Keepsolid VPN Unlimited. All of these VPNs have been officially warned before the suspending their VPN services. The authority claimed that these VPNs were being used to execute activities which are barred under the decree.
Meanwhile, the other VPN service providers have been warned to maintain strict adherence to the decree. They have been asked to ensure that VPNs are not being used by visitors for accessing restricted information. Otherwise actions of the similar nature will be taken by the authority against the violators.
