VPN services suspended in Rajouri, Jammu and Kashmir, to prevent election data leaks

JAMMU, August 31: The Jammu and Kashmir administration has suspended Virtual Private Network (VPN) services in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir to prevent uploading of confidential data during the upcoming assembly elections.

Click here to join Daily Excelsior on WhatsApp and get the latest news and updates

“In order to prevent uploading of sensitive data and leakage of election data during the upcoming assembly elections, an immediate suspension of VPN usage has been ordered in Rajouri district. The suspension will continue till the completion of the election process in Rajouri,” said an order by the District Magistrate Rajouri.
The suspension was imposed under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS).
“There has been an unprecedented increase in VPN usage across the district in recent days, raising suspicions about cyber threats,” the order said.
VPNs are designed to encrypt data and hide users from firewalls, concealing user activity and preventing surveillance on the Internet.
The hill districts of Poonch, Rajouri, Doda, Kathua, Reasi and Udhampur in Jammu division have seen terrorist ambush attacks on security forces and civilians over the past two months.
Following reports that a group of hardened foreign terrorists estimated at 40 to 50 men was responsible for the attacks, the army deployed over 4,000 trained soldiers from the elite paratrooper units and soldiers trained in mountain warfare in the dense forest areas of these districts.
Terrorists took advantage of the element of surprise to carry out ambush attacks and then disappear into the forests of these hilly areas.
With the deployment of the army and the CRPF and the strengthening of the village defence committees (VDCs) run by the residents, the terrorists were no longer able to use the element of surprise to carry out such attacks.
After the security forces took aggressive action against the terrorists in both the Jammu region and the Kashmir Valley, exchanges of fire between the terrorists and the security forces are now becoming more frequent.
“They are either killed in such clashes or remain on the run. This prevents them from surprising the security forces with sneak attacks,” said a senior police official. (Agencies)