Russia considered using AI to block VPNs
The Ministry of Digital Development proposed identifying and blocking VPN services using artificial intelligence. The ministry aimed to achieve 95 percent effectiveness in blocking VPN services, reports Kommersant.
Consensus
- Ministry of Digital Development (Minцифры) proposed using artificial intelligence to detect and block VPN services.
- The proposal was included in a draft version of the national AI development plan until 2030.
- The goal was to achieve 95% effectiveness in blocking VPNs.
- It was proposed that AI would analyze 70% of blocked VPN services.
- Currently, intelligence algorithms are used for traffic analysis, but they are not considered full AI.
- Minцифры stated that the measure was not present in the final version of the national AI plan.
- The use of AI could lead to false positives, blocking legitimate traffic such as corporate VPNs and cloud services.
- Experts noted that even a small error rate could result in significant amounts of legitimate traffic being blocked.
- The proposal was part of broader efforts to strengthen internet control in Russia.
Points of divergence
- The mechanism involves analyzing connection patterns such as packet size, session duration, and inbound/outbound traffic ratios. — novaya_eu
- The Roskomnadzor documents previously included a target to block 92% of VPNs by 2030, but these were removed from the website in May. — thebell
- The budget allocated for the ASBI system (technical tools against threats) was around 20 billion rubles in 2026 and 10 billion in 2027–2028. — thebell
- The demand for VPNs has sharply increased due to blockages of social media, services, and messengers. — meduza
- Minцифры was reportedly considering charging higher fees for international traffic, as operators treat VPN traffic as such. — meduza
- AI can identify VPNs by analyzing node behavior, hosting provider, and neighboring IP addresses. — novaya_eu
- Changing a single field in a TLS header reduced detection accuracy to about 38%. — thebell
Coverage (7 sources)
- Ministry of Digital Economy proposed strengthening the fight against VPN services with the help of AI — Вёрстка
- Authorities proposed using AI to find VPN and increase blocking efficiency to 95% — «Kommersant» — ЭХО / Новости
- Ministry of Digital Economy proposed using AI to detect and block VPN — Новая газета Европа
- Authorities planned to mass-block VPNs using AI — The Bell
- In Mincyfry proposed finding and blocking VPNs using AI — Meduza
- In Mincyfry proposed identifying and blocking VPN services using AI — Дождь (Telegram)
- Authorities planned to identify VPN services using AI — Коммерсантъ
Key entities
- Commerzant
- Ministry of Digital Development
- Russia
- Ministry of Digital Development
- VPN services
- Ministry of Digital Development