The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has confirmed that disruption of virtual private networks (VPNs) was caused by a technical glitch. In response, the PTA has called on commercial users to whitelist their IP addresses by registering their VPNs.
The disruption occurred in the context of ongoing restrictions on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) and intermittent access issues on other platforms, which led a substantial number of Pakistani citizens to rely on VPNs to circumvent these restrictions. By the evening of Sunday, VPN services resumed their operations.
In a statement responding to the outage, the PTA maintained that the disruption was the result of a technical malfunction in a statement regarding the incident, while simultaneously emphasizing the importance of VPN registration. The Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA) was also requested by the PTA to ensure that its members comply with the registration process.
The Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) sent a circular to P@SHA on Monday to assist the company in the registration of a VPN within the IT sector. In response, P@SHA has scheduled a virtual meeting for November 12th, 2024, to compel IT companies that provide services to international clients to register their VPNs.
P@SHA Chairman Sajjad Mustafa Syed explained to Dawn that VPN usage has surged with the expansion of IT businesses, as overseas clients typically do not operate over open internet connections. VPNs provide a secure internet connection by simulating access to a private network.
“All our members use professional VPNs with whitelisted IP addresses, but issues arise when some experts need to work from remote locations, requiring private VPNs as well,” Syed said.
Syed also noted that P@SHA is recommending that freelancers establish small companies and operate through registered VPNs to prevent future restrictions.
In Pakistan, VPN usage is permissible for legitimate purposes in a variety of sectors, such as finance, foreign missions, corporate enterprises, universities, IT companies, contact centres, and freelance professionals, as confirmed by the PSEB letter. Nevertheless, the letter also underscored that the government is enacting more stringent regulations on VPN usage in response to security concerns and the necessity to prevent misuse.
“To mitigate misuse, the government is tightening regulations surrounding VPN use,” the letter stated. It urged all relevant IT firms, contact centres, freelancers, and other entities to promptly register with the PTA for VPN services, as failure to do so would result in the services being suspended. Registration instructions are available on the PTA’s website.
Since 2020, approximately 20,000 VPN IP addresses have been identified in Pakistan. Earlier in August, the PTA issued a circular requesting that IT companies, contact centres, freelancers, foreign missions, and embassies register themselves through VPNs. However, the initiative failed to generate a significant response.
The telecom regulator is currently in the process of launching an awareness campaign for VPNs, and as a subsequent measure, non-registered VPNs may be terminated, according to PTA sources.
