Pakistan

Technical Glitch or successful ‘Firewall Trial’ disrupted VPN access in Pakistan?

Published by
Digital Desk

ISLAMABAD: Unconfirmed reports alleged that several virtual private networks (VPNs) have been banned in Pakistan as multiple internet users reported connectivity problems over the weekend.

Sources told Dawn that an issue with the system disrupted access to VPNs in Pakistan on Sunday. Authorities claimed that the VPN disruption lasted for 30 minutes to an hour and was caused by a glitch in the system.

Reports on outage tracking site Downdetector confirmed that VPN Unlimited and Tunnelbear users faced difficulties connecting to their VPNs, with issues peaking in the evening.

Whereas, Daily Ausaf learned that two dozen VPNs were disrupted after the government conducted a six-hour trial on Sunday in a step toward regulating internet usage under the web management system.

Sources claimed that the trial was carried out between 4 pm and 10 pm, which officials termed as a successful test. The test was a border plan to strengthen firewall capabilities, sources said.

However, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has yet to officially respond to the issue.

Earlier, PTA asked software houses, call centres, freelancers, and foreign missions to register their VPNs and internet protocol (IP) addresses with the authority for uninterrupted service in case of any disruption. “More than 20,000 VPNs and IP addresses have been registered since 2020,” the authority said.

Digital Desk

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