Russia Starts Blocking VPN Protocols • Hacker News Board

Re: Russia Starts Blocking VPN Protocols

#121

Post by Paradigma11 » Thu, Aug 10, 2023, 1:55 PM UTC

Aerbil313 wrote: post #84

lifty wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't about cracking down on piracy or anything of that sort. It's about slowly getting control of the media and information channels that Russian people have access to. The same playbook that China has been using since forever. Authorities have been encouraging popular Internet celebrities to start posting their content on local networks/apps, so in time Western media sources like Youtube and Twitter will be bl…

I don't live in China. Yet I'd very much like my country having its own national software stack (OS, search engine, browser, social media apps). All is fine for you guys in the US, but you forget when our national interests conflict with yours or big tech corporations or when the privacy of our citizens is concerned, it happens to be a national security issue. I trust my own government to not spy on me unnecessarily,…

If the CIA/NSA spies on you what would a plausible bad outcome look like?

If the Chinese government spies on you and finds some behavior it finds unacceptable your social credit tanks and you cant travel, send your children to a good school....

Re: Russia Starts Blocking VPN Protocols

#122

Post by rsynnott » Thu, Aug 10, 2023, 1:57 PM UTC

bluGill wrote: post #111

rsynnott wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you’re a dictator who just survived an abortive coup, then, yeah, you’re probably going to want to tighten control on what people can and can’t see. Putin is very weak right now, and likely feeling extremely insecure. For good reason; like, you would not want to be his life insurance provider right now. This sort of this is as likely to be emotional support censorship for Vlad’s benefit as anything else; hard to i…

> you would not want to be his life insurance provider right now Why not? Sounds like the perfect scam, collect the $$$, funnel it to some offshore account. When Putin dies the chaos of succession ensures that nobody will be able to attempt to collect before I leave the country.

I mean, I'm not sure how it works in Russia, but in most countries the insurance industry is about the most heavily regulated part of the finance industry, particularly since the financial crisis; that would be difficult to pull off :)

(Now curious whether "client became a dictator and is currently provoking people into murdering him" is sufficient basis for an insurer to get out of a policy...)

Re: Russia Starts Blocking VPN Protocols

#123

Post by Aerbil313 » Thu, Aug 10, 2023, 1:59 PM UTC

Aerbil313 wrote: post #117

fnordpiglet wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t disagree with this, but it would be better to have a stack that’s not controlled by any government but is based on technical standards - not governmental dictates or corporate control. I would also note that in your country the US agencies have no authority. However your own government can use that information to imprison you or otherwise exert its jurisdictional control. I think that’s generally what people…

> it would be better to have a stack that’s not controlled by any government but is based on technical standards That era of globalization is slowly passing away. > I would also note that in your country the US agencies have no authority. No it plenty does. Not well-known on the west side of the internet, but the US can and did easily order to our governments the individuals (which she saw to be influential in the di…

Edit: I literally found the article from my childhood project of replicating the website of the article, sitting in Google Drive trash, awaiting the 30days deletion. I searched for the exact title and indeed the article is nuked from the entire internet including webarchive except mere links on FB and Twitter. Three letter guys caught red handed. Here's the data of the article: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1wjPH5hN-uyATlO7K3Ynz...

Open the metin.txt for article. veri.json is metadata, 'baslik' means title. I hope my google account will not be burned over this.

Re: Russia Starts Blocking VPN Protocols

#124

Post by Aerbil313 » Thu, Aug 10, 2023, 2:02 PM UTC

Lex-2008 wrote: post #115

Aerbil313 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't live in China. Yet I'd very much like my country having its own national software stack (OS, search engine, browser, social media apps). All is fine for you guys in the US, but you forget when our national interests conflict with yours or big tech corporations or when the privacy of our citizens is concerned, it happens to be a national security issue. I trust my own government to not spy on me unnecessarily,…

> if I'm to be spied by someone, I'd prefer my own government who is far more likely to act in my best interests than the three letter agencies of US. I'm also aware of an opposite opinion: if I'm to be spied by someone, it's better to be a three letter agency overseas, since it's much harder for them to harm me, than a three letter agency in my home country, which can just knock at my door.

See my reply to your sibling 'I don't disagree with this...'

Re: Russia Starts Blocking VPN Protocols

#125

Post by gspetr » Thu, Aug 10, 2023, 2:07 PM UTC

nabogh wrote: post #13

I'm a little confused what Russia has to gain from this. My impression was previously that Russia was somewhat of a wild west when it came to piracy and internet restrictions. To make things weirder, the article claims that only mobile networks are affected. I wonder why that is. Is this just the decisions of a handful of telcos and it's being reported as a state-imposed restriction? Edit: also in my opinion, "blocki…

“Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.” -- Pravin Lal

Also, it's not just mobile operators. Major ISPs (with millions of customers) have some sort of DPI, or at the very least enforce the state's blacklist (which includes such "nefarious" websites such as FB, Linkedin, Medium, etc)

Re: Russia Starts Blocking VPN Protocols

#126

Post by fnordpiglet » Thu, Aug 10, 2023, 2:08 PM UTC

Aerbil313 wrote: post #117

fnordpiglet wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t disagree with this, but it would be better to have a stack that’s not controlled by any government but is based on technical standards - not governmental dictates or corporate control. I would also note that in your country the US agencies have no authority. However your own government can use that information to imprison you or otherwise exert its jurisdictional control. I think that’s generally what people…

> it would be better to have a stack that’s not controlled by any government but is based on technical standards That era of globalization is slowly passing away. > I would also note that in your country the US agencies have no authority. No it plenty does. Not well-known on the west side of the internet, but the US can and did easily order to our governments the individuals (which she saw to be influential in the di…

It’s only passing away if people let it. However, I’d note that it’s only passing away in a small number of authoritarian regimes, and technical standards dominate the stack for the parts of the world who value openness. I don’t think this is a “west vs east” thing, but a valuing of open societies.

I think people in many parts of the world would like to see the “others” oppressed - until tides change and they find themselves the “others.”

Once you allow someone to decide some thoughts are a crime because they agree with your views, it’s just a matter of time before that prison is open to your way of thinking.

On the CIA and extraordinary rendition and other things, yes I know it exists. My point isn’t that. My point is that your government does it a lot more and the likelihood of being snatched up by your government (wherever you are) is absurdly higher than the US breaking into your home and extracting you. That it happens is unacceptable but it’s also structurally rare to the point it’s news worthy.

I for one feel sorry for people who are imprisoned for no other reason for the people they love, the ideas they have, the way they view the world. I will welcome them to my side of the world with open arms and wish them peace, and mourn the loss of their home to people who feel they must hurt people for being alive.

Re: Russia Starts Blocking VPN Protocols

#127

Post by bnt » Thu, Aug 10, 2023, 2:12 PM UTC

dsign wrote: post #118

Bear with me on this one. Look at Cuba, and North Korea. Those two suffer famines, crippling blackouts, and the harrowing and pervading stench of failed civilization. Yet, the citizens of none those countries are trying to topple their government. How do they manage? Massive brainwashing, which is in turn made possible by controlling access to information. Cuba, the case I'm most familiar with, it's very interesting…

I’ll just leave this here and see myself out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksb3KD6DfSI

Re: Russia Starts Blocking VPN Protocols

#128

Post by comprev » Thu, Aug 10, 2023, 2:13 PM UTC

gsa wrote: post #14

I have been researching VPN protocols that work in China and found that Xray [0] is the most recommended route to escape the GFW. An ideal VPN setup is one where packets appear as normal https traffic. Some VPN setups take it a step further and proxy the traffic through Cloudflare. Setting all this up is nowhere as easy as Wireguard. Coincidentally, I came across this project on Github earlier today which is an obfus…

Is it possible to tunnel over SSH through GFW? User connects to server inside GFW, which tunnels outside, and onto the web?

Re: Russia Starts Blocking VPN Protocols

#129

Post by fnordpiglet » Thu, Aug 10, 2023, 2:14 PM UTC

Aerbil313 wrote: post #123

Aerbil313 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it would be better to have a stack that’s not controlled by any government but is based on technical standards That era of globalization is slowly passing away. > I would also note that in your country the US agencies have no authority. No it plenty does. Not well-known on the west side of the internet, but the US can and did easily order to our governments the individuals (which she saw to be influential in the di…

Edit: I literally found the article from my childhood project of replicating the website of the article, sitting in Google Drive trash, awaiting the 30days deletion. I searched for the exact title and indeed the article is nuked from the entire internet including webarchive except mere links on FB and Twitter. Three letter guys caught red handed. Here's the data of the article: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/…

Oh that’s not hard to find

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Omar_Abu_Ali

I agree, this is egregious. At least I’m allowed to say that and advocate strongly against such stuff without fear of reprisal. In many parts of the world I wouldn’t be allowed to criticize the government. (In fact I’m vacationing in one right now)

Edit: I think the fact that typing his name into a browser provided me not just Wikipedia but hundreds of websites advocating on his behalf, but you couldn’t find an article after 25 minutes of searching and fear you’ll be in some sort of trouble for having it in your Google drive exemplifies my point. An open internet isn’t just a tool for evil by the deranged. It’s how the good and the just know the truth.

Edit 2: by the way, thank you for the respectful discussion here, we don’t all have to agree on things but it’s wonderful to discuss with folks that aren’t part of the echo chamber.

Re: Russia Starts Blocking VPN Protocols

#130

Post by coldtea » Thu, Aug 10, 2023, 2:14 PM UTC

anthk wrote: post #107

coldtea wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"sooo many" is a technical term? "Sooo many" compared to what? Did you scrutinize the equivalent of Java's SDK in Rust + extra crates to get the same functionality? Do you include things like unrelated package bugs, like log4j bugs?

Hyperbola GNU/Linux ditched OpenJDK becasue either bugs or patents. The list on Java CVE's it's atrocious. Java should've died long ago with Golang and some cross-plaform (basic) GUI libraries promoted from Google. Nothing fancy, something like plan9/9front UI's, but enhanced. Java exists today because of corporateware. Outside of it, it's dead. De-ad. No one uses Java seriously for emulators, browsers, or basic soft…

I don't think this take understands Java's position, relevance, or the roles it serves. Or even what are the important categories, driving most of software development (it's not enulators, broswers -of which they're just a handful, all in C++, or "basic software" whatever that means).

For starters, Java is by no means used just in "corporateware", if this means some intranet stuff. It's also hugely dominant in server side development (including FAANG) and is used by tons of startups, it's big in banking, high frequency trading, and all kinds of heavy service infrastructure.

That covers the huge majority of programming work, not writing "emulators and broswers" (sic), which is why it's in the top 5 of the TIOBE index.

"GUI libraries" have little to do with, not to mention they're generally irrelevant for most modern programming use cases, which is server/backend or web-based (and where they're not, they're already provided by the host OS and its preferred SDKs).

Also "Hyperbola GNU/Linux"? That yardstick of what's secure?