Tech Republic cites Crucial Point founder Bob Gourley in
Russia VPN ban: What tech pros and business travelers need to know
Bob Gourley, co-founder of the cyber security consultancy Crucial Point and former CTO of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said that business travelers need to understand that Russia and China have both spent years developing their espionage capabilities. While there isn’t anything one can do to prevent such spying, there are things one can do to mitigate its impact.
“Steps to take include not bringing any corporate data with you on any device, only communicating when you need to, and never communicating sensitive information while in country,” Gourley said. “If you do have to log into corporate resources, use multi-factor authentication. And remember, your VPN or any proxy technology will likely not work, and if it does work it is because it is being broken and read.”
Just as Apple is bound to follow a country’s laws in doing business there (e.g. removing the VPN apps in China), business professionals have to follow the laws and policies of a country when they do business there, said John Pironti, cybersecurity expert and president of IP Architects. The stringent policies and restrictions on VPN usage can make work more difficult, but there are some alternatives to consider, such as using a browser-based connection instead of a VPN agent.