The Parliamentary Standing Committee has termed VPN (Virtual Private Network) services as a threat in countering cyber threats and other criminal activities. The Committee wants the Indian government to ban the VPN services in the country. The Parliamentary Committee said that the VPN tools are easily available online and allow the criminals to remain anonymous online.

The VPN services are mostly used by companies in India to secure their networks and digital assets from hackers. VPN tools have become very important in the lockdown period for employees when they are forced to work from home using an unsecured home-internet connection. VPN services allow internet users to stay anonymous while accessing content that is blocked in the country. It is quite beneficial for companies when it comes to securing networks.

The Parliamentary Committee has recommended a permanent ban on VPN services in India with the help of internet service providers. The committee has recommended that the Ministry of Home Affairs should coordinate with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to identify and permanently block VPNs with the help of internet service providers.

It also suggested that a coordination mechanism should be developed with the international agencies to ensure that the VPNs are blocked permanently.

(news source:toi)