Basit Banday*, employed with an IT firm based in the southwestern Indian city of Pune, handles sensitive healthcare data of his company’s clients, ensuring they are safe from leaks and cyberattacks.
Until late last year, the 27-year-old Kashmiri Indian was able to do that using a virtual private network (VPN), which allows a user to mask their internet protocol (IP) address by routing web traffic through a remote server in a manner that makes it undetectable to telephone data or internet service providers (ISPs).
But that changed on December 29 when the Indian government ordered a sweeping ban on the use of VPNs for two months in Indian-administered Kashmir, citing “threats to national security” and alleged “misuse” of the services to “incite unrest”.
The government claimed the use of VPN in Kashmir has the potential to be exploited for “unlawful and anti-national activities”, including dissemination of inflammatory material, misinformation, and other activities that threaten public order.
“It was further observed that VPNs enable encrypted data transmission, mask IP addresses, bypass firewalls and website restrictions, and may expose sensitive information to potential cyber threats,” said one of the almost identical orders, issued by the chief administrator in every Kashmir district.
Banday now fears he may lose his job or will be forced to relocate to Pune, more than 2,000km (1,242 miles) away from his home in Pulwama district.
“Unfortunately, the recent government order appears to have been issued without adequate consideration for professionals whose livelihoods and responsibilities are directly dependent on secure VPN connectivity,” he told media.
“VPN is extremely important and mandatory for any IT organisation. Even applications such as corporate email cannot be accessed without connecting to the VPN. It also restricts access to external platforms, allowing only authorised organisation systems and thereby limiting exposure to the outside world.”
Banday’s fears are compounded by a security crackdown that followed the government order.
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