According to sources cited by Turkmen.news, 1.2 billion IP addresses were blocked in Turkmenistan, accounting for one-third of all globally unique numerical device identifiers in computer networks, AKIpress informed.
Early in October of this year, Turkmenistan tightened its restrictions on banning websites. In less than a week, many subnets with 65,000 IP addresses were blacklisted. 4.3 billion 32-bit IP addresses out of 1.2 billion were purportedly blacklisted in Turkmenistan.
Recently, VPN services ceased to function due to extensive blocking. The security services promptly shut down the entire network where one VPN is found when it is found.
The nation barred all foreign social networks, YouTube, independent media websites, and other online platforms where criticism of the Turkmen government might arise.
Turkmenistan inhabitants were able to easily get around blocking with VPNs up until the fall of 2021, when the security services started restricting subnets. The Ministry of National Security threatened to summon them for a meeting at the same time, though.
People had no choice but to switch back to ICQ after all widely used instant messengers in the nation had stopped functioning.
The government of Turkmenistan and NTT DATA Romania S.A. of Romania entered into a contract in 2021 for the provision of equipment for the Cyber Security Service totaling more than 29 million euros.
This September, Turkmen.news stated that the editors had access to the State Program for Ensuring Turkmenistan’s Cybersecurity for 2022–2025, which was labeled “for official use.” It enables the development of a national digital network that is self-sufficient.
