FILE – Chinese Web users are seen at computer workstations.
February 03, 2015 8:55 AM
WASHINGTON—A recent move by Beijing to block access to several VPN services has angered some Chinese free speech activists who use the tools to get around China’s formidable Internet firewalls.
But now some analysts worry the move may signal a much larger and longer-lasting crackdown that could seriously cramp the Communist nation’s struggling economy.
Users in China of several VPN services, among them VyprVPN, Astrill and StrongVPN, began reporting they were being blocked from accessing those services on the Internet.
VPN’s, or “virtual private networks,” are used to bypass Internet censorship and filtering. In recent years, VPNs have proven very popular in China, not just among free speech activists but with many firms conducting international business from China.
In a Twitter message to its users, Astrill confirmed the blocks, but said only iOS devices, such as iPads and iPhones, appeared to be targeted.
Analyzing Web traffic
Over at its company blog, Golden Frog, the firm behind VyprVPN, also confirmed the new blocks, saying that it “appears that China is using Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) to analyze plain-text Web traffic through the Great Firewall.”
In response, the company is now using the encrypted HTTPS protocol to help bypass China’s DPI filters.
