Formalized last October, Stealth is the result of months of hard work in response to cyber censorship by oppressive governments. This protocol vpn, developed internally at Proton AG, contrasts with OpenVPN, WireGuard and other IKEv2 or L2TP/IPSec, in the sense that it is undetectable on the Internet network. The challenge today is to counter Russian cybercensorship.
Because if the protocols traditionally recommended have nothing to reproach themselves with in terms of the security of the data they transport, they are nonetheless identifiable by anyone who intercepts the connection.
Go unnoticed on the web
Clearly, difficult, if not impossible, to decipher a VPN connection that uses the isolated channels set up by OpenVPN and others. On the other hand, instances experienced in surveillance can easily spot and simply block a VPN connection using long-established technologies, such as DPI (Deep Packet Inspection), even on a large scale.
Like Chameleon, a VPN protocol developed by VyprVPN, Stealth today manages to thwart the anti-VPN measures put in place by authoritarian governments. Its main asset: its ability to trick the most seasoned surveillance tools into passing VPN traffic for standard HTTPS traffic. This sleight of hand allows Proton VPN to return to the charge in the field of the war against cybercensorship in the most repressive countries, in particular in Russia.
Proton VPN versus Russia, or David versus Goliath
To understand Stealth and understand the issues raised by the general public deployment of this obfuscated protocol, we have to go back to February 2022. Russia invaded Ukraine and at the same time tightened cybercensorship on Russian territory. Consequence: in barely 2 weeks, the number of Proton VPN users jumped from 25,000 to 850,000. At the end of March, however, the Russian government managed to develop an effective blocking plan to prevent its fellow citizens to use the service.
There followed 9 months of intense struggle between Russia and Proton during which the company worked hard to break through anti-VPN defenses while resisting attacks personally carried out against the provider. We are talking here about a massive smear campaign on the Android and iOS stores, which caused the Proton VPN application to drop in the search results. The solution has also been classified as a proven threat by the Russian internet regulator. According to New York Timesthe pressure exerted by the Russian government is such that some Proton employees preferred to delete any mention of the company on their social networks, for fear of being personally targeted by Russia.
Between March and August 2022, however, Proton repeatedly managed to circumvent the restrictions imposed by the Russian government. These functional solutions for a few weeks, at most, finally led the company to temporarily abandon the battle and withdraw its applications from Russian territory… until the arrival of Stealth, last October. As of today, Proton VPN is available again in Russia and at the moment is undetectable.
A symbolic commitment to cybercensorship around the world
Beyond marking its presence on Russian territory, this umpteenth return of Proton to Russia testifies to the need to continue the fight against censorship on the Internet, even though the NGO Freedom House reports a peak in cybercensorship in 2022.
Born from this strong commitment to the fight for a free and secure Web for all, Stealth, successfully tested in Iran before being deployed in Russia, also paves the way for the liberation of the Internet in even more repressive countries. like China.
Provided, however, that the technology holds up, a subject on which Andy Yen, founder of Proton, is still struggling to be optimistic. He recognizes, always according to the New York Times, that its protocol is probably not enough to constitute a long-term solution against Russian surveillance. In the meantime, Proton continues its search to find a truly sustainable answer to cybercensorship around the world.
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- The highest level of security
- Modern and intuitive interface
- Dedicated streaming/P2P servers
Proton VPN is one of the most evolved VPN providers over the past few months. Still boasting one of the most beautiful interfaces on the market, Proton VPN now includes a VPN accelerator that increases connection speeds by up to 400%. Renowned for its high level of security and confidentiality, this service, which was aimed primarily at journalists and dissidents in the past, now has all the assets to attract the greatest number of people.
Proton VPN is one of the most evolved VPN providers over the past few months. Still boasting one of the most beautiful interfaces on the market, Proton VPN now includes a VPN accelerator that increases connection speeds by up to 400%. Renowned for its high level of security and confidentiality, this service, which was aimed primarily at journalists and dissidents in the past, now has all the assets to attract the greatest number of people.
Sources: Freedom House, The New York Times, Proton
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