[tor-talk] Tor banned in Pakistan.

[andrew at torproject.org]

On Thu, Sep 08, 2011 at 10:23:41PM +0100, pumpkin at cotse.net wrote 1.4K bytes in 42 lines about:
: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/30/pakistan-bans-encryption-software

I talked to someone from the pakistani government about this encryption
ban early this spring.  They were concerned that this law would be far
too broad and demolish whatever nascent e-commerce and online banking
markets that had started in the country.  They were also concerned that
too many people in the government didn't understand the difference
between a VPN and HTTPS. 

This person talked to American counter-terrorism people and found that
actual terrorists were not using VPNs nor HTTPS at all. They stating
right out in the open, from their registered DSL lines, their plans,
where they lived, and what they were planning to do on various online
chat network and forums.

While technically, yes this law does make anything that uses encryption
on the Internet in pakistan illegal, it was primarily aimed at the
various VPN providers run by known criminal organizations. Tor, HTTPS
Everywhere, and other tools are now illegal. Whether someone is actually
prosecuted for using such tools in country remains to be seen.

-- 
Andrew
pgp key: 0x74ED336B
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