A smartphone smuggled out of North Korea has revealed the alarming extent of digital surveillance enforced by the Kim regime. Though it resembles a modern Android device, the software within tells a darker story: every five minutes, the phone covertly captures screenshots, storing them in an inaccessible folder for later state inspection.
The i2Coalition has unveiled a new report and website, DNS at Risk, spotlighting the growing misuse of Internet infrastructure by governments to control online content. Released on June 3rd, the initiative documents how states are increasingly deploying DNS resolvers and IP filtering—originally neutral systems—as tools of censorship and enforcement.
Ukrainian authorities have arrested a 28-year-old man in Khmelnytskyi for running an illicit virtual private network (VPN) service that enabled access to the Russian segment of the internet, known as Runet.
Apple has reportedly removed nearly 60 VPN apps from its Russia App Store, significantly higher than the 25 VPNs acknowledged by Russian authorities, according to a recent report by the App Censorship Project.
As of September 6, Brazilians caught using VPNs to access Elon Musk's social media platform X will face fines of up to 50,000 reais ($8,943.74) per day, despite false claims online suggesting otherwise.
Russia's Ministry of Digital Development is set to invest nearly 60 billion rubles ($660 million) over the next five years to enhance its internet censorship system, according to a government proposal revealed by Reuters.
Russia's communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, intends to block Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) starting March 1, 2024, according to Senator Artem Sheikin of the United Russia party.
France's forthcoming SREN Bill could mandate web browsers to block websites deemed illicit by the government, setting a precarious standard for digital freedoms, warns Mozilla Foundation in a recent blog post.
Iran has disrupted mobile internet access for some three hours on 19 January 2023. Real-time NetBlocks metrics show that mobile networks were disrupted for three hours on Thursday morning, while fixed-line services were largely unaffected.
Due to increased legislative interest in this topic, CENTR says there is a pressing need for comprehensive educational material on the technical capabilities of the DNS, ccTLDs and their role in the internet ecosystem.
Russia's Ministry of Communications has announced that it has successfully tested a country-wide alternative to the global Internet and that general users did not notice any changes.
Iran has almost entirely shut down internet access across the country amid protests over an increase in fuel prices.
Chinese citizens will be required to let telecommunications carriers to scan their faces in order to sign up for internet access or to get a new phone number.
The online digital rights group, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on Tuesday published a post warning ICANN's latest move requiring the use of Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) for .org domain names is a "bad fit."
While in most developed nations, foreign telecoms are interconnected with local and other international Internet exchanges, in China, there are no foreign carriers detected within china's borders.