MeitY responded to the report, though the committee is reportedly not satisfied with the response. It is the follow-up of the earlier report that was tabled in March and is also available for public access through the Rajya Sabha portal. Titled “Action Taken By Government on the Recommendations/Observations Contained in the 233rd Report on the Atrocities And Crimes Against Women And Children,” the report was submitted to the Rajya Sabha on August 10. Russian Hackers Are Abusing VPNs to Hijack Accounts: US, UK Officials.The recent moves were essentially aimed to help employees work remotely amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The government further simplified the rules in June this year. The recommendations by the parliamentary committee come months after the Department of Telecommunications ( DoT) scrapped the earlier regulations for IT business and call centres in the country to ease the usage of VPNs. It also asked the Ministry of Home Affairs to strengthen the tracking and surveillance mechanisms to put a check on the use of VPN and the dark Web.Īs per the report that was first brought into notice by MediaNama, the committee recommended the Home Ministry to work with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology ( MeitY) to identify and permanently block VPNs with the help of Internet service providers (ISPs) in the country. In its report presented to Rajya Sabha regarding the government action on previous concerns, the committee again recommended developing a “coordination mechanism” in collaboration with international agencies to block VPNs permanently. The committee cited VPN services as a technological challenge that lead to “bypass cybersecurity walls and allow criminals to remain anonymous online”. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs has once again urged the government to block virtual private networks (VPNs) in India.