Cloudflare sees signs of Russians increasingly turning to Western news sources to get accurate information about the situation in Ukraine.
A new blog post published today by Cloudflare presents statistical evidence that the netizens of Russia are adopting blockage circumvention tools pretty aggressively to access British, American, and French news sites.
At the same time, the Russian government appears unwilling to isolate the country from the global internet, as many suggested was the plan, and also unable to ramp up its resource access blockages due to quality issues.
However, Russia has blocked access to Western media outlets and social sites to control the narrative regarding its invasion of Ukraine.
Turning to reliable news sources
As the war in Ukraine continues and Russian media is not providing evidence of success or even convincing justification for the so-called special military operation, many Russians are attempting to bypass blocks to learn more from Western news outlets.
In March, Russia's most downloaded mobile apps were various VPN tools, Telegram, and Cloudflare's own "WARP / 1.1.1.1", a privacy-focused recursive DNS resolver that can route users' requests through one of the firm's servers.
WARP protects DNS requests from being monitored by internet service providers (ISPs), protects against DNS poisoning, and offers intelligent features like malware filtering.
By analyzing the usage stats from WARP, Cloudflare has seen a rise in Russia-based use, starting from early March. Most of the DNS lookups coming from that market concern large French, British, and U.S.-based newspapers.
"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 about the new research.
DDoS attacks originating from Russia
Cloudflare also reports a spike in DDoS activity, culminating at around the second week of March, originating from inside Russia.
According to the blog post, these attacks targeted sites outside Russia but were mitigated at the source, which is easier and more effective.
However, the internet giant clarifies that origin doesn't necessarily equal attribution, especially when the attacks are from DDoS botnets relying on compromised IoT devices.
Cloudflare's vindication
A month ago, Cloudflare announced special data protection measures in response to the war, including the wiping of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus-based servers in the case of a power loss or extensive internet connection disruption.
Simultaneously, the firm announced its decision not to exit the Russian market as that would hurt freedom and make accessing truthful and reliable information from within the country a lot harder.
Cloudflare's latest DNS stats vindicate its stance, which raised criticism at the time, as providing support to Russians has helped raise awareness of what is happening in Ukraine.
Comments
Amigo-A - 2 years ago
Again lies, vile lies and dirty politics... Only now Cloudflare imagines himself to be an important person, infected with lies and spews it on all four sides. Ugh.
alex2012 - 2 years ago
Can you explain what part is the lie?
Amigo-A - 2 years ago
Except the third paragraph, everything else.
NoneRain - 2 years ago
Would be nice to provide some evidence to that. Do you have any links?
horsedoggs - 2 years ago
Go away Amigo, your comments are boring me
buddy215 - 2 years ago
Can you read the news at New York Times and BBC? If not...where do you get your news from?
GT500 - 2 years ago
It's fairly normal for news sources to be unreliable, whether they be western or eastern, however if you have any actual evidence that the article (either here or on Cloudflare's blog) are not factual then please feel free to share it.
LittleDickPutin - 2 years ago
Don't fall for it people. Whatever smelly part of that country he/she is hiding in... oh wait thanks to the Yandex hack looks like it's hitting a little closer to your front door huh Amigo-A? What tasty treat's do you like to order my friend?
ThomasMann - 2 years ago
"Cloudflare sees signs of Russians increasingly turning to Western news sources to get accurate information about the situation in Ukraine."
Most amazing. Everybody is always babbling about how truth is always the first victim in times of war.... But as soon as some kind of war comes along, people immediately pronounce that any media that confirms their own believes about that war is telling the truth.
Neither the US/NATO side, nor the Putin/Russian side will tell you anything, but propaganda.
In war truth never matters. Winning the war is what counts in the end, sheer brutal violence and mass murder, from both sides. And it is ALWAYS the winners, who decide what is written in history books. Already forgotten, that 14.000 Russian civilians were murdered in Eastern Ukraine since 2014?
YOU HAVE NO WAY OF KNOWING WHAT GOES IN UKRAINE RIGHT NOW !!!
NoProbs - 2 years ago
Russian propaganda bot.
ThomasMann - 2 years ago
Your answer just proves my point....
A planet full of morons, you really deserve all the wars that come your way.
Yorper - 2 years ago
“However, Russia has blocked access to Western media outlets and social sites to control the narrative regarding its invasion of Ukraine.“
Yes because the West is so noble and just in all it does. It would never sensor or de-platform media outlets and people not regurgitating the agreed narrative…. Oh wait
TairikuOkami - 2 years ago
In the meantime people in the west try to gain access to reliable Russian news blocked by so called Democratic countries. People clearly want to see both sides.
ThomasMann - 2 years ago
That will be the day, when "people" want to hear both sides.
People ONLY want their believes confirmed.
That has been the story of this century so far, and it will not change soon.
First every problem was caused by Al Kaida, not by US foreign policy against Muslim countries.
Then came Corona and replaced terrorism, once again with only one opinion allowed.
And now Corona has been replaced by the new "one-subject-only" intelligence level media, with Putin/Russia. One subject, only one opinion... and the people by now are already so retarded that they get away with it? I wish you all a happy future.
On the other hand...
What makes you think that Russian propaganda is more reliable than the information from USA/NATO? You are in the Ukraine and all over the whole country at the same time, and so you KNOW what is actually happening there??
buddy215 - 2 years ago
You are wrong. I'm in the USA and can read Russian news at the TASS website. It is not blocked. https://tass.com/?utm_source=google.com&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=google.com&utm_referrer=google.com
Dominique1 - 2 years ago
The real question is if more Russians get their news from outside Russia, why isn't there more pressure on Putin to stop his war?
ThomasMann - 2 years ago
Maybe, unlike most of people living in the "west", they have actually heard what reason Putin gave for his actions, in all those weeks before he actually "invaded"?
And they think (not just believe) that he is actually right?
The US had an easy way to prevent this war, but then, why would they? There never was a war the americans did not like.
And, once again, while others die, the USA are the only ones who are actually profitting from this war. This could be understood quite easily. Unlike your question, the real question is, why do the people in the west believe in the preposterous hypocrisy of NATO countries?
buddy215 - 2 years ago
Exactly how is the USA profiting from Russia's war on Ukraine?
How could the USA prevented the Russian war on Ukraine?
ThomasMann - 2 years ago
Even though I am certain that you are not really interested, I will state the obvious. Because others here will actually understand...
I will not even go into the detail of the story of the agreement made after german unification. Russia was given assurance that NATO will not be extended towards Russia. But as the discussion about Ukraine's NATO membership became louder and louder this year, Putin unmistakingly stated that this is for Russia what is nowadays called a red line, and he wants assurance that this will not happen.
It would have taken Biden half an hour to have a letter written to Putin confirming exactly that.
Instead Blinken, in Bidens place, in every statement he made did not even once mention Putin's request, so the war that could have easily been prevented by the USA started.
I am not for any war and dislike Russia and Putin as much as I dislike the US and its Presidents, but Putin had made very clear what would happen. Putin President of Russia and responsible for his country and nothing that NATO/US does. The security of his country is his job. There is NO good side in this war, but it was the US who did not want to prevent it.
And of course it was very clear before the war actually started, that Ukraine neutrality and NO membership of NATO will stand at the end of this war, and thousands more of unnecessary dead people, after the ASOW had already killed 14.000 Russians in Eastern Ukraine.
If you check Pres Eisenhowers speech at the end of his term in office, you will learn about the military-industrial complex, which is part of who actually really makes the decisions decides in the USA. And for them their biggest businesses, those in Iraq and Afghanistan, were just closed down and they needed a new big market for their products, which the taxpayers of all countries will have to pay. You can read about billion Dollar arms deals with Japan, Germany and others in any newspaper.
The second US business that needed "help" is the fracking gas business. The ecological desasterous production and its absurd price caused Russia and Germany to build a pipeline to get cheap gas from Russia to Germany. At a price acceptable to germans and guarantieing peace between the two countries as a side effect.
But, as germans have elected a government of politicians living just inside the sphincter of the US, instead of having cheap gas, these retarded germans now have another million refugees, and an extra billion dollars worth of weapons, absurd inflation and a most probable an even further catastrophic future.
Well done, you morons in Germany deserve what you will get.
And the US is the winner because they let a war start for their own profits.... Don't misunderstand me, I am a cynical as the next person, and I live far away from any war. I am simply pointing out what actually is going on.
That this is beyond your intelligence is, as I already wrote, very clear, but then., others may want to read a neutral's perspective.
:-)
buddy215 - 2 years ago
Again...How is the USA profiting from Russia's war on Ukraine?
Putin's given reasons for its war is nothing like what you claim. Why would Russia feel threatened if Ukraine joined NATO?
Putin simply wants to expand Russian control. Putin is the threat to all of Europe in his wanting to control all of Europe. It is ridiculous to think he would not of invaded Ukraine if he had been assured Ukraine would not join NATO. Quiet the opposite. If Ukraine had joined NATO a year ago Putin would not of started this war. I'm well aware of Eisenhower's comment / warning. I was born during WWII. I was in the AF when Russia caused the Cuban missile crisis.
I know why Putin wanted Trump elected and went all out with his propaganda machine to make that happen. Read the Tass news articles then you will see how Putin is attempting to control what Russians know about this war. You are actually defending Putin...that is as plain as it can be. Regardless of your attempt to
say otherwise.
ThomasMann - 2 years ago
You are an idiot... end of conversation
buddy215 - 2 years ago
Giving up? Going away? Putin thought the Ukrainians would of given up the first week. You wouldn't make a good Ukraine citizen.