The Hindu Business Line : Proxy sites help access banned blogs

IT experts warn against accessing the blocked Web sites through an unknown proxy server because it may record everything including unencrypted logins and passwords.

New Delhi , July 18

The ban imposed by the Department of Telecom (DoT) on the 17 Web sites could prove to be ineffective, with users being able to access these sites through proxy servers. The proxy sites enable Internet users to access a Web page that is blocked by circumventing it through an unblocked site.

Explaining the modus operandi, an official of Net4India, a leading ISP in the country, said, "The ban imposed by the Government will not achieve the objectives, as it is not possible to control the content on the Net. While we have blocked the Web sites from our side, anyone can access them through thousands of proxy sites freely available on the Internet. These servers mask the identity of the blocked site. So even if the user is accessing the banned site, the identity of the proxy server is what is relayed back to an ISP."

The Internet Service Providers Association of India also agreed that the sites could be accessed despite all the ISPs blocking it at their end.

Global cases

Internationally also such bans have not been very effective. For example, `elgoog' allowed users in China to use Google after it had been blocked there. Similarly, several proxy sites came up in Pakistan after a ban on BlogSpot last year.

However, IT experts warn against accessing the blocked Web sites through an unknown proxy server because it may record everything including unencrypted logins and passwords. The owners of the proxy servers will also be able to trace users' activities on the Internet.

Bloggers outraged

Meanwhile, the blogging community has expressed outrage at the ban on BlogSpot, as the Indian ISPs have blocked the entire site despite the Government asking them to block only a few pages. A number of protest groups have come up on the Net calling the ban an infringement on free expression.

ISPs said that it was technologically not possible to block specific blogs; so they had to shut down the entire site. Mr Kiran Karnik, President, Nasscom, said that the ban on blogs was "neither desirable nor feasible."

Sources said that more Web sites could be on the DoT ban list soon. The ban was issued on July 13 by the DoT on the direction of the Computer Emergency Response Team India (CERT-IN) of the Department of Information Technology.

The 17 sites blocked include pajamaeditors.blogspot, dalitstan.org, imagessearchyahoo.com and rahulyadav.com. While CERT-IN was not available for comments, the DoT sources said that the ban was imposed due to security reasons. In 2003, the Government imposed a similar ban on Yahoo Groups because of fears that one of the discussion groups had links with banned separatists.

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