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جولای 31, 2022

NordVPN, Express VPN, SurfShark shuts down India servers:

VPN services such as ExpressVPN, NordVPN and SurfShark have announced shutting down India servers. This comes in the aftermath of the recent cybersecurity rules introduced by the country’s cyber security agency CERT-In. The guidelines require VPN providers to store user data for a period of five years.
VPN services are essentially used to maintain a layer of privacy. Many resort to virtual proxy networks that allow users to stay free of website trackers that can keep track of data like a user’s location. However, it seems that VPN services and providers are not in line with India’s stand against proxy services. Here’s we explain what happened so far.
New VPN directives announced
On April 26, CERT-In, a wing of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology issued directives requiring VPN service providers to maintain details such as validated names of customers, the period for which they hired the service, the IP addresses allotted to them, their email addresses, time stamps, etc. This information has to be stored by VPN providers for five years or longer, as per the new guidelines.

While the government said that these details will help fight cybercrime. On the other hand, privacy is the main selling point of VPN services.
According to the directives, failing to meet the Ministry of Electronics and IT’s demands could lead to imprisonment of up to a year. Notably, companies are also required to keep track of and maintain user records even after a user has cancelled his/her subscription to the service. The new laws are expected to come into action within 60 days of being issued, which means they could kick in from July 27, 2022.
Backlash
As soon as the directives were pushed out, several policy experts raised concerns about the guidelines, stating that the guideline translates to lesser privacy and with data being logged, it would be possible to track browsing and download history. The Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) put out a statement calling this directive in serious privacy violation and impacting VPN companies operating in India.

Prasanth Sugathan, Legal Director, SFLC.in noted that some providers may even choose to exit India than comply with such stringent guidelines that go against the principle of data minimisation adopted by most VPN services. A report by Reuters citing sources revealed that in a closed-door meeting many social media and tech company executives discussed strategies to urge New Delhi to put the rules on hold.
The warning
Declining on putting the rules on hold, the government issued a stark warning to VPN service providers on May 18. India’s Union Minister of State IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said there will be no changes despite the worries, saying tech companies have an obligation to know who is using their services.
“If you’re a VPN that wants to hide and be anonymous about those who use VPNs and you don’t want to go by these rules, then if you want to pull out (from the country), frankly, that is the only opportunity you will have. You will have to pull out,” Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrashekhar said.
Chandrasekhar, however, said India was being generous, as some countries mandate immediate reporting.
ExpressVPN, SurfShark, NordVPN remove servers
ExpressVPN become the first virtual private networks to reject the government’s new rules and decided to move out its servers out of India.
ExpressVPN described the cybersecurity rules as “broad” and “overreaching”. “The law is also overreaching and so broad as to open up the window for potential abuse. We believe the damage done by potential misuse of this kind of law far outweighs any benefit that lawmakers claim would come from it,” ExpressVPN said.
Indian users of ExpressVPN will still be able to use its service via “virtual” India servers located in Singapore and the UK. “We will never collect logs of user activity, including no logging of browsing history, traffic destination, data content, or DNS queries. We also never store connection logs, meaning no logs of IP addresses, outgoing VPN IP addresses, connection timestamps, or session duration,” the company said.

Surfshark VPN followed suit and announced shutting down its servers in India. The company said that VPN providers leaving India “isn’t good for its burgeoning IT sector”.
“In response to the new Indian data regulation laws, Surfshark is shutting down its servers in India. The new laws require VPN providers to record and keep customers’ logs for 180 days as well as collect and keep excessive customer data for five years,” the company said in a blog post on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, one more VPN provider in NordVPN too is contemplating removing its India servers. NordVPN become the third VPN provider to remove its servers from India in response to the country’s cybersecurity directive. “In the past, similar regulations were typically introduced by authoritarian governments in order to gain more control over their citizens,” NordVPN said in a statement. “If democracies follow the same path, it has the potential to affect people’s privacy as well as their freedom of speech. One way or another, this law will likely have a negative impact on people’s privacy and digital security.”

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ژوئن 16, 2022

Free VPN App on Google Play Store Exposes User Database | Here’s Why You Should Go for a Paid Option

A VPN app can secure your safety online, but not all the time. For instance, a free VPN accessible on the Google Play Store has reportedly exposed many users’ data to risk.
A recent report says a database containing over 18 GB of connection logs is all over the internet. How can you stay safe amid this security concern?
Free VPN Service Put User Data at Risk

(Photo : Privecstasy from Unsplash)
Android users should beware of a free VPN app that can expose their information online.

In May, Cybernews listed that the free VPN apps might expose users’ information when using a smartphone. Now, it’s been confirmed that one of these applications includes BeanVPN.
The latest story from Tom’s Guide revealed that this VPN app has over 25 million data from global users. The database envelopes IP addresses, ID, connection timestamps, and more.
This security issue has been bugging researchers recently because people could easily click and download it. Without them knowing, the hackers behind this scheme could immediately steal their credentials.
“The information found in this database could be used to de-anonymize BeanVPN’s users and find their approximate location using geo-IP databases. The Play Service ID could also be used to find out the user’s email address that they are signed in to their device with,” Aras Nazarovas, a security researcher from Cyber news, said.
Related Article: Tor Plus VPN: Can This Help You Stay Truly Anonymous Online?
Privacy Violations
Tom’s Guide included in its article that IMSOFT is the company behind BeanVPN. Although it’s stated in its own policy that the free VPN service won’t store any timestamps and IP addresses, the firm has not really addressed it.
In this regard, the Romania-based firm has violated its policy when it comes to privacy. Instead of vowing to protect user data from being exposed online, it does not do what it wrote on its rules.
Speaking of user data, an exposed database can do more harm than good to the users.
For instance, a 2021 incident has caught the attention of Cybernews. At the time, the firm found out that three VPN services had leaked confidential information–ChatVPN, SuperVPN, and GeckoVPN.
The worst part of this investigation is that experts discovered that the data were sold on the dark web. There’s also a separate database that Cybernews spotted. The unsafe digital storage came from the UK law enforcement organizations.
If the hackers get the data, this could affect not only the users but also the businesses to which this information is tied.
Why Choose a Paid VPN Over Free Ones?
It’s good that people can now use a VPN app for free. This is a user-friendly approach by a VPN company to its customers. However, you should note that choosing this type of service has limitations.
For instance, a fake VPN app does not have enough safety and security features that you can access on paid versions. To note, buying a premium VPN guarantees lasting protection since it comes from a trusted provider.
Read Also: Best Working VPNs For Netflix in 2022 | Here’s Why You Should Buy Them or Not
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Joseph Henry

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ژوئن 15, 2022

Explained: Why is NordVPN removing its India servers?

NordVPN has become the third virtual private network (VPN) provider to remove its servers from India in response to the country’s cybersecurity directive. It follows the likes of ExpressVPN and Surfshark who have already pulled their servers from the country in the aftermath of the rules. The norms, released by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) in April, require VPNs to record and keep users’ logs for 180 days as well as store a range of information for five years.
“In the past, similar regulations were typically introduced by authoritarian governments in order to gain more control over their citizens,” NordVPN said in a statement. “If democracies follow the same path, it has the potential to affect people’s privacy as well as their freedom of speech. One way or another, this law will likely have a negative impact on people’s privacy and digital security.”

Why has NordVPN removed its India servers?

The Panama-based company said that due to the logging and storage requirement of the rules, “a VPN company with servers in India may no longer be able to guarantee privacy for its users”.
The firm is “concerned” about the possible effect this regulation may have on people’s data. “From what it seems, the amount of stored private information will be drastically increased throughout hundreds or maybe thousands of different companies. It is hard to imagine that all, especially small and medium enterprises, will have the proper means to ensure the security of such data,” it said.Best of Express PremiumPremiumPremiumPremiumPremium
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NordVPN will remove its servers on June 26, a day before the cybersecurity norms come into effect.
NordVPN is among the largest VPN providers globally, with more than 14 million users globally and more than 5,500 servers in 60 countries.

“As one of the industry leaders, we adhere to strict privacy policies, which means we don’t collect or store customer data. No-logging features are embedded in our server architecture and are at the core of our principles and standards. Moreover, we are committed to protecting the privacy of our customers. Therefore, we are no longer able to keep servers in India,” NordVPN said.
How have other VPN providers reacted?

Last week, Surfshark pulled its India servers, saying that the cybersecurity rules “go against the core ethos” of the company’s “no logs” policy.
Before that, ExpressVPN had removed its servers from the country, saying it “refuses to participate in the Indian government’s attempts to limit internet freedom”.
What are India’s rules related to VPNs?

The guidelines, released by CERT-In on April 28, asked VPN service providers along with data centres and cloud service providers to store information such as names, e-mail IDs, contact numbers, and IP addresses. among other things, of their customers for a period of five years.
While the government has said it wants these details to fight cybercrime, the industry argues that privacy is the main selling point of VPN services, and such a move would be in breach of the privacy cover provided by VPN platforms.
However, despite these concerns, Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrashekhar had earlier said that VPNs who would not adhere to the rules are free to exit the country.
The rules will come into effect on June 27.
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What happens to Indian users of NordVPN?

The firm said that its Indian servers will remain until June 26, and in order to ensure that its users are aware of this decision, NordVPN will send notifications with the full information via its app starting 20 June.
While the firm is yet to announce how the move will impact its India users, other VPNs who have removed their servers said that they will service users in the country via virtual servers located in other countries.

می 27, 2022

With VPN Order, the Government Shows It’ll Leave Virtually Nothing Private

This article was first published on The India Cable – a premium newsletter from The Wire & Galileo Ideas – and has been republished here. To subscribe to The India Cable, click here.
In directions issued on April 28 by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), amidst a lush forest of legalistic whereases, nestled an order to Virtual Private Network (VPN) providers to perform a KYC (‘know your customer’) on their users and maintain usage logs for five years. The rules become enforceable next month.
The order confirms that the Modi government wants an information-asymmetric surveillance society. It wants its affairs to be perfectly opaque (think electoral bonds, the stonewalling on Pegasus) and the doings of the public to be perfectly transparent.
For VPN providers, the order is a poison pill. They sell privacy through end-to-end encryption and masking location. Requiring them to file KYCs and maintain usage logs defeats the purpose.
In fact, the order is a clever way of putting VPNs out of business in India without actually banning them, like China and Russia did. A ban would needless excite the Western press and institutions like Human Rights Watch and the UN, which are already concerned about restrictions on free speech in India, whether by internet throttling and shutdowns as in Kashmir, or by straightforward arrest, as in the case of Jignesh Mevani.
Also read: ‘Godse Bhakts in PMO’: Jignesh Mevani and BJP’s Efforts to Preserve Gujarat’s Bipolarity
Market leader NordVPN has threatened to pull its servers out of India rather than comply. For them, it’s probably not a big deal. They have only one accessible server located in Mumbai, while there are 16 in the US and four in the UK. The one-server deal is common in markets much less important than India, like Thailand and Argentina. Other providers like SurfShark say that it is technically impossible for them to store user data because it is routinely overwritten in server RAM. Others like ExpressVPN are speaking out about a “worrying attempt to infringe on the digital rights of citizens”.
Who uses VPNs? A wide spectrum, from rights workers on hostile ground to criminals, for the same reason ― to fly under the radar. Free speech proponents want to protect the former, while CERT-In wants to go after the latter. Corporates are power users, but seem to be tacitly excluded from the government’s order.
In between are regular citizens, tired of being tracked by platforms, or just trying to access the Netflix US catalogue from India. Internet technologies are dual use, because technology is morally agnostic. Before VPNs were a thing, there was The Onion Router (Tor), which bounced traffic across at least three servers to shake off trackers. Tor was created for activists in authoritarian countries, but criminals soon made it the gateway to the Darknet, where stores sold contraband from homemade drugs to assassination services (it was sobering to discover, on an assassin’s rate card, that the life of a top newspaper editor is cheaper than a minor politician’s).
Also read: Will Centre’s New Rules on User Data Collection Spark a Stand-off Between VPN Providers and Govt?
In 2016, the FBI led Operation Hyperion against the Darknet’s illegal storefronts and their customers. The onion network was compromised and Tor lost trust. The state and businesses moved in. Checking the ownership of its exit nodes, where traffic is decrypted, one found security agencies, spammers and scammers, who were obviously snooping on plaintext as it left Tor.
VPNs are like Tor, but on the question of security, the resemblance to BlackBerry is even stronger. Once Canada’s most valuable product, it closed down very quietly this January, shouldered aside by iPhones and Droids. But the fall of the cult device with the fiddly little keys and cast-iron security began in 2008, when the Manmohan Singh government demanded access to its network. There was an immediate reason: the terrorists in the Mumbai attacks had used BlackBerrys and the Indian security forces couldn’t break the encryption.
In 2013, BlackBerry buckled to keep the India market and gave real-time access to users’ mail, BBM messages and browsing data. The internet, as its name suggests, is inter-networked, and nothing happens in isolation. Users understood that if the security of one was compromised, so was the security of many. The withdrawal of trust was palpable, and if VPNs buckle to the government’s demands, they will repeat history ― without even the excuse of a 26/11, because no special threat is now visible.

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می 5, 2022

Experts, VPN users unhappy with mandate to store users’ data for 5 years

“VPN apps provide me access to free-internet. The whole purpose of using a VPN is that my personal information is not tracked by tech corporations who peddle personal data.” Pune-based techie Ritesh Kalvellu, 26, is very clear why he is not convinced about CERT-In’s recent directive to VPNs to retain Know-Your-Customer (KYC) information.
The guidelines mandate service providers such as VPS, VPN, intermediaries, and data centres to retain user data for five years, and report cyber incidents within six hours. Companies are also required to keep track and maintain user records even after a user has cancelled his/her subscription to the service.
Aneesh P, a 21-year-old student who is enrolled in a long-distance online college based in Germany, uses VPN apps to stay connected with his teachers, and classmates. “The VPN provides me with a secure connection to German local news channels, streaming services, and assists me with finding my assignments —most importantly, I don’t see any advertising on my web browser, which means nobody is tracking my web history and I’d want it to remain like that.”

A VPN hides your identity and encrypts your data while also giving access to an IP in a country of your choice. It shields your identity by replacing your computer’s IP address with a temporary IP address hosted on a remote server.
Sarfaraz Shaikh, a 38-year-old businessman, told indianexpress.com that he works remotely from cafes and uses public wifi, which he then connects to a VPN service to ensure his data is not logged. “If my data would start being tracked and recorded by VPN companies, then why would I even bother to purchase the subscription?”
Like Shaikh, several others believe this guideline translates to lesser privacy and with data being logged, it would be possible to track browsing and download history.
While the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s cyber arm CERT-In’s recent directive is to bridge the gap in cyber incidence analyses by having access to more information and data to enhance cyber security but experts and Internet freedom companies think this directive would result in serious privacy violation and impact VPN companies operating in India.
The Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) raised concerns about the clause in the guidelines which states that the companies have “to store data for five years or more”. “The ambiguity around the time frame along with the lack of reasoning behind extending it could lead to serious privacy violations,” IFF said in a statement to indianexpress.com.

The policy requires VPN service providers to collect as well as report a wide amount of customer data even after the customer has cancelled their subscription or account. This includes but is not limited to names of subscribers/customers, validated physical, email and IP addresses, contact numbers, and other such personally identifiable information. Such excessive requirements for collecting and handing over data will not just impact VPN service providers but VPN users as well.
Prasanth Sugathan, Legal Director, SFLC.in believes that some providers may even choose to exit India than comply with such stringent guidelines that go against the principle of data minimisation adopted by most VPN services.
The lack of a data protection law in India makes the situation all the more problematic with limited recourse available for a citizen. “Forcing private players to collect such information without a strong data protection law places the privacy of the average user at risk,” said Udbhav Tiwari, Senior Manager, Global Public Policy, Mozilla.

“The KYC requirement is broad and might impact the operations of cloud service providers. The customer information sought under this requirement is sensitive and could deter consumers from availing the cloud services,” Rizvi said, explaining how this policy would affect VPN companies.
The five-year policy will also mean that VPN providers will see their costs jump significantly, which will then likely have to be borne by the consumer.
“The amount of data that is required is high. It will increase the operational costs of running a VPN and users will think twice before opting for such services. Although it is important for CERT.IN to monitor and investigate cyber security incidents, the privacy of citizens should not be compromised to achieve this objective,” Sugathan added.