Tor browser is banned in Belarus. How to bypass Tor blocking and avoid censorship in Belarus. Follow the instructions

The Ministry of Communications admitted that tools for circumventing censorship on the Internet, such as the Tor browser, are blocked in Belarus. Officially, this measure is explained by the need to deny access to sites on the blacklist. And this is actually spelled out in the OAC resolution. True, the resolution itself is already two years old, and they have only started blocking Tor now. Why this is and how serious it is, explains an IT specialist Alexey Chernyaev.

What is this list of blocked addresses?

“I cannot say one hundred percent, since there was no official information. As far as I know, from a technical point of view, this is one list consisting of two parts: the first is blocked sites, compiled manually, the second is compiled automatically through a subscription. There are some "an institution, rumored to be Chinese, that offers a subscription to a list of resources that can be used to bypass censorship. In this case, updates are sent by the Chinese, and there, in addition to Tor, there may be any resource to bypass censorship - anonymizers, proxies, VPNs."

As Euroradio learned, on this list 16821 unique IP address. Among these addresses 5994 - these are Tor addresses. In total, Tor has 7010 nodes, which means that almost all Tor nodes in Belarus are blocked.

Why did we buy this locking device, so to speak “box”, only now? And how realistically does it work?

“As you know, the resolution itself is 2 years old. According to my information, we purchased this “box” back in November last year. Why it took a year to connect it is a question to which there is no clear answer, perhaps administrative approvals were delayed or technically took a lot of time . Will this work? Why not. There is a question about what kind of company sold this service. If it is private, then this is one thing, if it is state or private, but connected with Chinese government agencies, this is completely different. The Internet blocking system that operates in China , not only blocks access to addresses, it actively searches for these addresses and not without success. And if the subscription that our authorities will use is from near-state structures and they have access to updates to the database that is being formed within the framework of the Golden Shield project, more known as the "great Chinese firewall", then the effectiveness can be quite large. The system itself was turned on on November 28-29, and this can be seen in the graph of Tor use in Belarus."

According to the analysis made by specialists at the request of Euroradio, the list of IP addresses blocked in Belarus includes addresses of proxy servers - about 7 thousand, Tor - 5994, there are definitely several VPN addresses, and there are addresses of anonymizers. To be more precise, a longer analysis of all addresses is needed, but even from such a quick analysis we can say that the “black list” contains a lot of means of circumventing censorship.

How difficult is it to completely cover all bypass measures?

“We often say with optimism that technology cannot be defeated. No matter how they block it, there will be a way around it. And they often refer to the Chinese experience, where the authorities invest heavily in blocking the Internet. Many say: this doesn’t work 100%. But it does should not work 100%, it should work so effectively as to cut off most of the audience. And the example of China is not very optimistic. The number of Tor users in China is comparable to that of Belarus, despite the huge difference in population. The Chinese are not winning globally, they cannot stop Tor, but win on points.Periodically, they manage to bring the situation to the point where it becomes difficult for users to access means of circumventing censorship, and most of society is isolated from the external Internet.

If we transfer the experience to the Belarusian situation, it can have quite serious consequences. In my opinion, about 15 thousand people in Belarus have practical experience using Tor. If blocking becomes widespread enough and people become more motivated to use circumvention tools, we may see an increase in this number, but it is unlikely to be explosive. As media professionals, you can imagine how you would feel if a maximum of 15-20 thousand people from Belarus could access your resource. This is a pretty serious threat. We should not be indifferent to it and console ourselves with the fact that technology is invincible. They don’t need a 100% victory, they just need to create difficulties.

But here the question is not technical, but political. Now the Belarusian government is trying to position itself as not the worst possible, and it is not profitable to seriously tighten the screws. Therefore, everything will depend on the political situation. The very wording in the OAC resolution sounds quite broad, it can even be formulated in such a way that all sites that write how to bypass the blocking can be blocked.”

The Ministry of Communications and Information of Belarus confirmed the blocking of the anonymous Tor browser, BelTA reports. Officially, this is explained by the need to prohibit access to sites from the “black list”. This measure was adopted by the OAC decree of February 19, 2015, and they started blocking Tor only now.

A few days ago, evidence emerged of IP addresses belonging to Tor proxy servers being blocked.

The Ministry of Communications and Informatization recognized the blocking of Tor: in a commentary to BelTA, a representative of the ministry noted that it is not anonymous access to the Internet itself that is blocked, but the ability to visit “forbidden” sites. The IP addresses of such resources are blacklisted by BelGIE (the State Inspectorate of the Republic of Belarus for Telecommunications), after which all communication service providers are required to block their clients’ access to them.

“In this case, the goal is not to prohibit anonymous user access to the Internet. The goal is to restrict access to Internet resources containing information the distribution of which is prohibited. Access to these sites is limited in accordance with the legislation of Belarus,” a ministry representative said.

At the same time, the task is understood quite broadly: despite the fact that Internet service providers are obliged to limit access to a number of resources and successfully do this, the very possibility of using proxy servers, anonymous networks and other methods of anonymous access is under threat. This is explained by the theoretical possibility of using these tools to visit prohibited sites.

As Euroradio learned, there are 16,821 unique IP addresses on the “black” list. Among these addresses, 5994 are Tor addresses. In total, Tor has 7010 nodes, which means that almost all Tor nodes in Belarus are blocked.

At the same time, users have the ability to connect to the Tor network through hidden nodes, so-called “bridges,” whose IP addresses are entered manually. Tor statistics show that “direct” connections from Belarus have become significantly smaller in recent days (three and a half thousand users per day instead of the previous five), while the use of “bridges” has intensified.

A year ago, the site announced the purchase by BelGIE of an anonymizer search system, and there is every reason to believe that it is finally fully operational.

Internet users in Belarus have recorded a blockage of access to the main servers of the Tor anonymizer. Experts advise what to do to continue using this service. The first reports of Tor blocking in Belarus appeared in the second half of last week - they looked like a problem with one or another provider. Users experienced that the process of connecting to the service could not be completed.

Over the weekend, interested users exchanged information and came to the conclusion that in general we are talking about blocking this anonymizer in Belarus. According to Tor, the number of direct connections to Belarus has decreased by 30 percent. According to experts Alexey Chernyaev and Igor Boskin, this may indicate that the blockade is in the process of unfolding.

Tor is an anonymous distributed network that functions as a gateway between the client and the external network. It is believed that the absence of a logical connection between the sender and the message guarantees reliable anonymity.

Secret registry

According to unofficial data, Tor domains are included in the restricted access list of the Republican Unitary Enterprise for Supervision of Telecommunications BelGIE (RUE "BelGIE") - a register of sites closed from the public that providers must block. The list is maintained by the Ministry of Information. Neither the ministry nor the BelGIE comment on information about the blocking of Tor.

As DW reported, since February 25, 2015, a decree of the Operational Analytical Center under the President of Belarus and the Ministry of Communications and Information has been in force, according to which RUE "BelGIE" is instructed to include proxy servers, anonymous networks such as Tor and others that allow users to receive access to Internet resources whose identifiers are included in the restricted access list. It seems that only in December 2016 did Belarusian censors get around to blocking Tor.

In practice, it turned out that the Tor browser in Belarus works fine if it is launched inside a VPN (Virtual Private Network), that is, we are not talking about internal problems of the service. In addition, Tor works if you select the “connection problems or the operator is censoring” tab in its settings. However, some users complained that in addition to the closure of standard Tor connection paths, some of the most well-known alternative paths were also blocked.

Follow the instructions

Another expert, Igor Boskin, in an interview with DW, expressed the opinion that, in principle, if there is a state monopoly on access to an external Internet gateway, the Belarusian authorities can almost completely block access to Tor and other similar services, as well as VPN.

“The Belarusian leadership really likes the Chinese model, where the external Internet is completely closed, and where an enterprise must justify its request to the Ministry of Propaganda in order to connect to sites outside the country,” the expert noted. However, even in China they were unable to completely block the use of Tor.

The first reports of Tor blocking in Belarus appeared in the second half of last week - they looked like a problem with one or another provider. Users experienced that the process of connecting to the service could not be completed.

Secret registry

Internet users in Belarus have recorded a blockage of access to the main servers of the Tor anonymizer. Experts advise what to do to continue using this service.

Over the weekend, interested users exchanged information and came to the conclusion that in general we are talking about blocking this anonymizer in Belarus. According to Tor, the number of direct connections to Belarus has decreased by 30 percent. According to experts Alexey Chernyaev And Igor Boskin, this may indicate that the blocking is in the process of unfolding.

Secret registry

In practice, it turned out that the Tor browser in Belarus works fine if it is launched inside a VPN (Virtual Private Network), that is, we are not talking about internal problems of the service. In addition, Tor works if you select the tab in its settings "connection problems or the operator practices censorship". However, some users complained that in addition to the closure of standard Tor connection paths, some of the most well-known alternative paths were also blocked.

Follow the instructions

Security Specialist Alexey Chernyaev advises you to follow the Tor instructions, available in a special section of the service https://bridges.torproject.org/. To obtain alternative ways to connect to Tor, you need to send a letter with the get bridges command in the body of the letter to the address. The function only works for Riseup, Gmail or Yahoo mail services.

Another expert Igor Boskin in an interview with DW, he expressed the opinion that, in principle, if there is a state monopoly on access to an external Internet gateway, the Belarusian authorities can almost completely block access to Tor and other similar services, as well as VPN.

“The Belarusian leadership really likes the Chinese model, where the external Internet is completely closed, and where an enterprise must justify its request to the Ministry of Propaganda in order to connect to sites outside the country,”- noted the expert. However, even in China they were unable to completely block the use of Tor.