Whether you live in Malaysia or are planning to travel there soon, you’ll likely soon have access to a very different internet than the rest of the world—unless you use one of the best VPN apps.
As part of an effort to improve digital security, the government unveiled plans in late July to build an internet kill switch to block harmful online content such as gambling, pornography, copyright infringement and other illegal activities. However, circumvention tools can still be used to bypass potential blocks, as Malaysia’s telecom regulator has made clear no intentions from blocking VPNs.
Last week, September 7, local Internet Service Providers (ISP) received the order to redirect all DNS queries sent to alternative DNS providers back to their own servers starting September 30. The move has drawn fierce criticism, with commentators warning of government-mandated censorship.
The backlash was so strong that just a day after the announcement, Malaysian Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil tweeted about the decision to suspend the plan – for the time being.
The VPN leak
“The Malaysian authorities may have sent the decision for review, but they haven’t gone back to square one. The idea is still on the table and there is a good chance that it will be implemented. If not next week, then sometime this year,” said Andrey Meshkov, CTO at AdGuard.
What the Malaysian government wants to change is how ISPs manage DNS queries and servers – essentially giving them more power to control the processes. As the MCMC explained in its Frequently Asked Questions: “DNS redirection is the process of redirecting Internet requests from users to specific DNS servers, in this case the ISP’s local DNS.”
While you can think of an IP address as your device’s home address, the Domain Name System (DNS) acts as the Internet’s virtual phone book. Every time you initiate a web query, it’s the DNS that translates domain names into IP addresses so your web browser can access websites and other Internet resources.
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As we mentioned earlier, even if the measure is enforced, you can still use a reliable VPN service to maintain access to the uncensored web.
This is because a VPN (virtual private network) is a security software that encrypts your internet connections to ensure that snoopers cannot access your data while it is in transit. At the same time, it also spoofs your IP address to trick your ISP into thinking that you are surfing from a completely different country.
VPN encryption ensures that your ISP cannot see any of your data, including DNS queries. The only thing the ISP can see is that you are using a VPN and the servers you are connected to. The VPN’s own DNS server will also handle your DNS queries directly. Simply put, using a VPN would undermine the effectiveness of the DNS redirection sequence.
“By not targeting VPNs, the Malaysian government is creating a loophole to access blocked content,” Meshkov said, adding that the order still raises concerns for user privacy and security. “It could give ISPs and the government unfettered access to the list of domain names (such as google.com or dailymail.com or pornhub.com) that the user has visited,” he added.
When asked about the possibility that Malaysia will eventually impose a ban on VPNs, Meshkov thinks it is unlikely to happen, given the country’s ranks high in terms of democratic freedoms.
“That said, we don’t rule out the possibility entirely. But even then, as the examples of Iran, China, and Russia have shown, VPN providers have found ways to continue operating in those countries,” he told me.
Why is Malaysia’s DNS policy controversial?
The MCMC ensures that only access to illegal or harmful websites is blocked. However, it is not difficult to imagine that this provision could be abused and misused over time.
According to Andrey Meshkov, CTO at AdGuard, such a measure is incompatible with the idea of a free web and with the right of people to freely choose which service they want to use.
“We strongly believe that it is up to the individual user to decide what content they want to consume and what content they want to block,” he said. “For example, free public DNS services like AdGuard DNS offer non-filtering, ad-blocking, and family protection modes to help users control their online experience. The user should be in control, not the service provider.”
This policy is unwise and should be reversed. 1. It IS censorship. 2. It is inefficient and opens up further cybersecurity risks (e.g. DNS poisoning). 3. It is counterproductive to the government push for tech startups, innovation, and data centers. https://t.co/FFmW9J1oVYSeptember 7, 2024
If The register reported, other commentators were particularly critical of censorship grounds and government intervention. Musician and state legislator Syed Ahmad Syed Abdul Rahman Alhadad, for example, deemed The decision was seen as “draconian” and warnings were made about possible negative effects on the country’s digital economy.
Malaysian politician Lim Yi Wei (see tweet above) defined the “unwise” policy as censorship that could pose cybersecurity risks.
However, AdGuard’s Meshkov believes that the internet freedoms of Malaysian citizens and visitors are not the only ones at stake here. Other countries could follow Malaysia’s lead and implement a similar filtering system.
He said: “Such policies could send a message to other countries, particularly those with little respect for democratic freedoms, setting a potentially dangerous precedent. The community must unite against these threats to the free web and make its disapproval clear. It may be Malaysia now, but your country could be next.”