VPN (Russian market)

2024

Apple, at the request of Roskomnadzor, removed 98 VPN applications from the Russian App Store

On September 24, 2024, the GreatFire project, which monitors the state of censored websites, released the results of a study indicating that Apple removed almost 100 VPN applications from the Russian App Store. This is due to the requirements of Roskomnadzor. Read more here

Roskomnadzor will block scientific and technical information about VPN services

Roskomnadzor will block scientific and technical information about VPN services. This became known at the end of July 2024. According to the order of the department, scientific, scientific, technical and statistical information about VPN services to bypass locks will be recognized as prohibited in Russia, and an exception will be made only for information about VPN used to provide secure remote access. The document should enter into force on March 1, 2025.^[1]

"White VPN" may appear in Russia

"White VPN services," which will lay down the principle of compliance with Russian legislation, should appear in Russia. This will help protect citizens from malicious resources and protect their data from leaks. This was announced on June 11, 2024 by the press service of the State Duma deputy RFAnton Nemkin.

It is wrong to introduce responsibility for using VPN services, but "white VPNs" should appear in Russia, said Alexander Khinshtein, chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technology and Communications.

There is no responsibility for the use of VPN services in Russia for citizens and I think it is wrong to enter it. I like the idea of ​ ​ making "white VPNs," which are already being developed by domestic specialists. Such services should be based on the principle of compliance with laws, i.e. resources with illegal content should remain blocked. Of course, "white VPNs" must reliably store user data, which cannot be said about most of the services available for June 2024, which even trade in this information, Hinstein is sure.

As of June 2024, about 30% of users continue to use VPN services - most often to access blocked social networks, other sites and resources, but also to increase anonymity on the Internet and for work purposes, said Anton Nemkin.

At the same time, almost all VPN services promise users anonymity and security on the network, but in fact they turn out to be hidden enemies - they infect the device, steal, viruses personal data create vulnerabilities for and hacker attacks much more. And in itself, the feeling of anonymity on the network turns out to be false. Personal data users who use unverified VPN services are not only available to the owners of these services, but are also transferred to their partners for use for purposes marketing , the deputy emphasized.

For example, many companies use them to protect their communications from fraudsters and hackers who, after starting a special operation and blocking foreign social networks in Russia, need to steal sensitive information about Russians at any cost. Corporate VPNs are configured differently than those versions that can be found in app stores, specialists carefully work on their security, so you can trust them. If we talk about them precisely as a protective technology, then, first of all, it is necessary to secure the connection between the employee and the office from a man-in-the-middle attack. During such an attack, a third party imperceptibly wedges between the two sides of the communication and secretly watches her, stealing any information. And if the VPN works, the attacker sees only encrypted traffic. He understands that the employee and the office exchange information, but he no longer knows which one. In fact, this is "white VPNs," he said.

Nevertheless, among those VPNs that can be found in mobile app stores as of June 2024, most still work against Russian law, as they are aimed at providing access to blocked resources.

They are monitored and promptly blocked by Roskomnadzor, since, according to the law "On Communications," the work of VPN services that do not provide filtering of information that violates the law is prohibited in our country. If such VPN services appear in the public domain that will operate within the framework of the law, among other things, this, of course, can largely protect the data of our citizens from leaks - according to Roskomnadzor statistics, the number of leaks has increased almost 40 times over the past two years, often VPNs become the culprits of incidents, - concluded Anton Nemkin.

2023: CBR orders banks to disclose VPN usage to regulator

Until June 2, 2023, Russian banks must transfer information to Roskomnadzor "on the use of VPN protocols to automate technological processes." This is stated in a letter from the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, which was sent to credit organizations. Kommersant cites excerpts from this document on May 12, 2023. Read more here.

2022

The Ministry of Digital Development demanded that state corporations and banks report on the use of VPN

The Ministry of Digital Development demanded that state corporations and banks report on the use of VPN. The corresponding letter of the department became known on November 8, 2022.

As Vedomosti writes with reference to this document, in it the Ministry of Digital Development asks "as soon as possible" to clarify which VPN services they use or plan to use, as well as for what purposes they do it and in which locations. In the questionnaire, the company must indicate the name and type of VPN, the system, Internet resource, etc., for the use of which a VPN is required, including for technological purposes (banks/ATMs, payment systems, data storage systems, etc.), as well as the city, region of Russia or country of use.

The Ministry of Digital Development requires state corporations to report on the use of VPN

The distribution list includes,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, and RoskosmosRostecGazpromRostelecom Sberbank VTB Promsvyazbank GazprombankOpening Alfa-Bank. Rosselkhozbank Raiffeisen Bank Rosbank Sovcombank

Experts interviewed by the newspaper believe that the audit is primarily aimed at understanding the total number of communication channels that require additional protection. In addition, the collection of information can be associated with a new wave of blocking VPN protocols. The survey touched upon large commercial and government organizations, because it is necessary to exclude situations in which blocking a VPN can disrupt the work of important infrastructure or public services and business.

The purpose of this study is to obtain up-to-date data on the protocols, technologies and VPN services used by Russian companies, the Ministry of Digital Development told TASS, adding that this technology is an important element of information security.

In addition, the ministry justified the need to timely assess the use of VPN services by reducing sanctions risks. It will also help "have worked out plans in case such services decide to suspend their work in Russia," the ministry said. ^[2]

The Ministry of Digital Development is working to study the needs and features of using VPN in the country before the possible blocking of the main VPN protocols

The ministry sent the corresponding questionnaire in November 2022 to industry organizations with a request to fill out in a short time. According to market experts, information is collected to possibly block all major VPN protocols.

It is also assumed that in the future VPN will become a public service or a state monopoly service with authorization through Public services.

Cyber ​ ​ war: US increases funding for VPN services to bypass blocking by Russians

In mid-June 2022, it became known that the US authorities are increasing funding for VPN services to bypass blocking by Russians. Financial support is presented through the United States World Media Agency (USAGM) and the Open Technology Fund (OTF, funded by the government and controlled by USAGM). Read more here.

Roskomnadzor declared VPN a threat and began to massively block services

In early June 2022, VPN Russia interruptions began in the work of popular services (NordVPN, Lantern, Outline VPN, etc.). Involvement in this was confirmed in: Roskomnadzor the structure Main Radio Frequency Center (GRCC) limits the work of VPN services in Russia that "violate Russian law."

According to the law "On Communications," the means of bypassing the blocking of illegal content are recognized as a threat. The Public Communication Network Monitoring and Management Center is taking measures to restrict the operation of... VPN services that violate Russian law, RIA Novosti was told in Roskomnadzor.

Roskomnadzor declared VPN a threat and began to massively block services

Karen Ghazaryan, General Director of the Institute for Internet Research, told Kommersant that by early June 2022, Roskomnadzor was blocking VPN services using OpenVPN and WireGuard protocols. At the same time, the department, using technical means to counter threats (TSPU, filter Internet traffic), tries various methods, learns to distinguish between protocol modifications and block VPN services not entirely, but pointwise, he said. According to the expert, if VPN services are blocked entirely, this will lead to resource malfunctions in the Russian segment of the network

At the end of May 2022, it became known that in several regions of Russia they began to test the blocking of popular VPN protocols - L2TP and IPsec. Problems with access to protocols were also confirmed by the GlobalCheck resource availability monitoring service.

This is a big blow, including to corporate networks - many administrators of such networks are now urgently looking for solutions to bypass, GlobalCheck said.

German Klimenko, Chairman of the Board of the Digital Economy Development Fund, says that Roskomnadzor blocks mainly large and popular VPN services. The blockages are designed for those who do not want to spend efforts to bypass them, he said.^[3]

Central Bank of the Russian Federation warned of a new type of VPN fraud

In early May 2022, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation warned of a new type of VPN fraud. The scheme is that scammers persuade potential victims to visit their blocked sites using such programs.

The fact is that when we block the site of an illegal or financial pyramid, access to it is limited only in the Russian Internet space. And if a person uses a VPN, then such a site is open to him, he does not see that the resource has been blocked, is illegal, - explained Valery Lyakh, director of the Bank of Russia's department for countering unfair practices, in a conversation with TASS.[4]

Scammers persuade potential victims to visit their blocked sites using VPN

According to him, fraudsters in a telephone conversation convince the interlocutor to go to their site only through a VPN, arguing this allegedly by the need for special data encryption and a secure connection with services. Therefore, Lyakh advised Russians who go to the pages of financial organizations with a VPN enabled to additionally check on the Bank of Russia website whether this company has a license and is not included in the "warning list."

Looking for financial services, it is better to turn off the VPN on your phone or tablet first, "Lyakh said.

At the same time, the head of the Infosecurity digital threat analysis department, Alexander Vurasko, in an interview with Sputnik radio recommended not to include VPNs when accessing email or financial information. Even taking into account the fact that the exchange of information, in particular, with banking applications, takes place in encrypted form, there are still risks of compromise.

According to the specialist, the one who controls the VPN server can also control traffic, so a trusted provider is important. Vurasko advised to choose paid options and those services that have been on the market for many years.

2019

According to Russian law, traffic encryption services can work in Russia, but VPN providers must respect Russian locks and not offer access to sites prohibited by Roskomnadzor. Some VPN providers are already working like this^[5].

However, not everyone is in a hurry to comply with the law, connect to the Federal State Information System, which contains a list of prohibited Internet resources and restrict access to them. Someone takes a wait-and-see attitude, others - for example, Avast said it would not provide Avast SecureLine VPN services in Russia.

Roskomnadzor, in turn, is in no hurry to block naughty services, hoping for the imaginative power of fines.

However, the law does not apply to the use of VPN for corporate purposes, so this legislative innovation will not have a direct impact on the Russian virtual network market.

Therefore, the market will grow, although not at a very fast pace - by 2-11% per year. The cloud virtual network market will increase annually by 50-350% during this period and by the end of the period under review will reach 15% of the VPN market as a whole.

2016-2017: DirectINFO Data

During this period, 46-47% will fall on segments B2B and B2G (services to the commercial and public sectors, respectively) and 6-8% - on B2O, services provided to operators.

According to forecasts, in terms of growth rates, the Russian VPN market as a whole will develop more slowly than the global one, and its cloud part is much faster. This, in particular, analysts at Direct Info explain that in 2022 the commercial sector will surpass the state in terms of costs for virtual private networks.

2012: VPN Market Trends in 2011-2015

According to analysts, by 2015, the total volume of the VPN market may grow to 30 billion rubles, of which about 14 billion rubles, is the market for interregional VPNs. The state order will remain one of the main drivers of the VPN market, its share in the total market volume will continue to grow.

In the carrier segment, the market will grow due to new high-speed connections in MPLS L2 Ethernet networks (for example, data center connections), the development of LTE and, as a result, an increase in demand from cellular operators to expand the backbone capacities of regional data transmission networks. The carrier market will also grow through migration processes from link lease technologies to MPLS VPN.

In the corporate client market, along with the overall increase in VPN penetration associated with the unification of enterprises of their distributed telecommunications networks, the market drivers, according to DirectINFO experts, will be additional services based on virtual private networks:

• Cloud and Unified Communication solutions
• services video conferencings and telepresence (); Telepresence
• network management and optimization services;
• remote access to the corporate network, to processing centers, to data centers and collaboration applications based on the cloud architecture.

2011: DirectINFO Data

The analytical company "DirectINFO" completed in the spring of 2012 the next stage of the regular research of the virtual private networks (VPN) market in Russia since 2004 . According to the company's estimates, the total volume of the managed VPN market of all types (MPLS VPN L2 and L3) amounted to about 21.1 billion rubles in 2011. Compared to 2010, it grew by 19%.

The VPN segment can be conditionally divided into two components: intraregional VPNs (services are provided within one settlement or region) and interregional ones (a virtual private network that unites company offices located in different cities and regions).

The size of the interregional VPN market amounted to about 11.1 billion rubles in 2011 and grew by 10% over the year. The intra-regional VPN segment is growing at a higher rate. Its size reached 9.9 billion rubles in 2011.

According to a regular survey of large and medium-sized enterprises, the level of coverage of interregional VPN services for this type of enterprise was 5.4% (in 2010 - 4.5%), and intra-regional VPNs - 13% (in 2010 - 12%). Despite the crisis in the economy over the past five years, the growth rate of the client base of VPN services has remained extremely high - more than 20% per year.

Government organizations are the largest consumers of VPN services. They account for 19% of the entire client base of operators. In second place is the financial sector (14%), in third - trade, services and manufacturing (12% for each of these industries). Government agencies are leading in such an indicator as the average number of ports per company - 84 ports per organization.

Among the companies - the leaders of the market for interregional VPNs - are operators actively working with government agencies. These are primarily Rostelecom (44% of the market in terms of the total number of ports) and Sinterra (18% of the market). It is the B2G segment that is the main driver of the interregional virtual private networks market. In the total number of ports involved, about 48% are state consumers. The share of business users in this indicator is slightly lower and amounts to 45%.

2010: VPN Market Assessment

The growth dynamics of the VPN market is gradually decreasing. Its participants give in October 2011 estimates that differ by almost 2 times. According to TransTeleCom, the annual volume of the VPN market is 11 billion rubles, of which about 5 billion rubles. accounts for services for government bodies. "This is a growing segment of the market," said Vitaly Kotov, vice president of TransTeleCom - head of the Highway block.

Rostelecom believes that the volume of the VPN services market in Russia in 2010 amounted to about 18 billion rubles, the forecast for 2011 is at least 20 billion rubles. Research company Direct INFO released data according to which the volume of the Russian managed VPN (VPN L3) market in 2010 was 10.6 billion rubles, and in 2011 it could grow to 12.5 billion rubles.

VimpelCom estimates the market dynamics by the number of connections. "According to preliminary data, this year VimpelCom's growth dynamics in the number of VPN connections will be 10-13%," says Vladimir Pashchenko, senior manager of the VimpelCom data and Internet services department.

Thus, the growth rate of the virtual private networks market is in the range of 10-18% and is on average 14.5%.

The demand for VPN networking services has remained high for several years. For example, over the past month, the Federal Treasury, the Russian division of the European retail chain re: Store, Udmurtstat have turned to this service. A branch of Argus Pipeline Service (APS), an international company specializing in pipeline design and construction, has organized a VPN network that combines Moscow and Neftekamsk offices. The service is provided on the basis of TransTeleCom access nodes located in Ufa and Neftekamsk of the Republic of Bashkortostan. The capacity of the communication channel allocated for the organization of the network is 10 Mbps. "When solving problems in the design and construction of pipelines, our company actively uses telecommunication technologies," said Andrey Krivtsov, head of the IT department at APS.

Suppliers characterize demand in different ways. Vitaly Kotov believes that the VPN market can be described as mature and saturated: "On the one hand, we are seeing a decrease in the market price for the service, on the other, a slight increase in the volume of service consumption. In general, today the demand for VPN services can be called sustainable. "

According to Pavel Averkin, Deputy Director of the Rostelecom Product Management Department, the VPN services market is in a state of active growth. "This is due to both the growth of the economy as a whole and the growth of large corporations, as well as the development of various information systems that require the connection of various objects of corporate and state users," he says. "At the same time, there is a gradual partial replacement of channel rental services with more modern and high-quality services for building virtual private networks, which gives VPN services additional growth rates." The country's largest backbone operator rates its position in the VPN market as leading.

The representative of the company "T2 (T2 Mobile, T2 RTK Holding) earlier Tele2" Alexander Bakhorin calls VPN one of the most popular services in the telecommunications market b2b: "The growth in the number of" mobile "employees, that is, using remote access to corporate resources, until 2016 will be 131%. At the same time, the number of financial organizations and telecom companies (they are one of the largest users of VPN networks) in Russia is more than in the USA and Western Europe. "

Since the need to organize distributed secure corporate networks is experienced by regionally distributed organizations, most customers are federal companies with headquarters in Moscow. "80% of service customers are federal companies whose central offices are located in Moscow. It is from Moscow that the connection to the corporate network of regional offices of companies is mainly carried out, "confirms Vitaly Kotov.

However, the number of federal customers is still limited, and the prospects are related to the regions. "Further market growth will be associated with the expansion of the branch network of major consumers and with the connection of the SME and SoHo segments. Demand, thus, is formed not according to the regional principle, but by the concentration of settlements with a population of 100-200 thousand people, "says Alexander Bakhorin. "In certain regions, for example, in Yekaterinburg, demand is much higher than the average for the country. In our opinion, the reason is that Yekaterinburg is a dynamically developing city with a favorable climate for doing business and opening new representative offices and offices of various companies, "explains Vladimir Pashchenko.

See also

• VPN (Global Market)
• VPN Solutions for Enterprise Networks
• VPN routers for small and medium businesses (SMB)
• VPN and privacy (anonymity)
• Censorship (control) on the Internet. Experience of Russia
• Censorship (control and anonymity) on the Internet. World experience
• Censorship (control) on the Internet. China experience

VPN protocols that have evolved over the past decades:

• Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP)
• Internet Protocol Security (IPsec)
• Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP)
• Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol (SSTP)