Wrong decisions to handle right issues
By Technology Times at September 10, 2011 | 1:55 pm | PrintA- Reset A+
The volley of follies on the part of official authorities in Pakistan to handle the persistent issues of national importance is not yet over as most recently the government has banned use of virtual private networks (VPNs) by Internet users when the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority sent a legal notice to the country’s ISPs, directing them to turn in customers who use VPNs. The slapping of this ban means the Internet users in the country would not be able to transport their data without any fear of being monitored or hacked. A VPN is a method of computer networking that allows users to privately share information between remote locations, or between a remote location and a business’ home network. This system provides secure information transport by authenticating users, and encrypting data to prevent unauthorized persons from reading the information transmitted. Pakistan has a wide network of companies and offices that have remote workers or their branches connected through VPNs to share private data and network resources. According to the PTA notice, the ban on VPNs has been imposed to prevent militants from using secure connections to relay information to one another. However, what’s more disturbing is the fact that although the government thinks that this ban will help it in spying on communications between terrorists, the removal of encryption would mean that this communication will become an open invitation for most of the hackers as without encryption it becomes extremely easy for them to eves drop on the communicated data. Bans on VPNs aren’t rare. India, China and Iran are just a few of the countries that require some state approval for encryption software. According to a survey, conducted by the OpenNet Initiative of Internet policy in 15 nations, including Pakistan, these states censor Internet access in some way, but most of them allow the use of encryption. Even in the wake of protests across the Middle East, which led many countries to curtail Internet access, they did not limit encryption. The Chinese government censors the Internet heavily, but it still allows the use of VPNs, and the technology is widely used by Chinese businesses. In the 1990s, the US government had attempted to restrict the use of encryption but it faced opposition from civil-liberties groups and ultimately found the regulation impractical to enforce, in part because of encryption’s business applications. The government authorities need to continue allowing VPNs and explore some other options currently being exercised by developed states in order to monitor militant groups’ communications as it would cause minimal restrictions for the business companies in the country.
