New statistical evidence from Cloudflare has shown that Russians are bypassing website blocks to access information from Western news sources.
The Russian government blocked access to Western media and social websites, but information showed that the most downloaded apps in Russia in March were VPN tools, Telegram, and Cloudflare “WARP/1.1.1.1.”
WARP is a privacy-oriented recursive DNS resolver that protects DNS requests from being monitored by internet service providers (ISPs).
“The picture is clear from these (three) charts. Russians want access to non-Russian news sources, and based on the popularity of private Internet access tools and VPNs, they are willing to work to get it” explains Cloudflare in a blog post.
Cloudflare research also identified an increase in DDoS activity that was felt around the second week of March and originating from Russia.
Although Cloudflare’s decision not to leave Russia has raised several questions, the new report will nonetheless confirm the company’s continued preaching of its neutral position.
For more information, read the original story in BleepingComputer.