Russian ISPs Begin Disrupting Encrypted DNS Services from Google and Cloudflare
Users of several major Russian internet providers have reported widespread issues accessing encrypted DNS protocols offered by Google and Cloudflare. The affected services include DNS over HTTPS (DoH) and DNS over TLS (DoT), which encrypt DNS queries and prevent providers from easily monitoring which domains users are visiting.
Measurements indicate that the filtering operates in a sophisticated manner. TCP connections are established successfully, but the secure tunnel is disrupted at the next stage. When connecting to Cloudflare addresses 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1 on port 853, the TCP handshake completes, after which the connection is forcibly reset with an ECONNRESET error before TLS authentication finishes.
Google Public DNS shows a different pattern. Connections to dns.google, 8.8.8.8, and 8.8.4.4 on port 443 are established, yet after the TLS ClientHello is sent, responses stop. Sessions either hang until timeout or end with an "unexpected eof while reading" error. This behavior points to interference by intermediate network equipment using signature-based filtering.
The problems have affected subscribers of Rostelecom, Dom.ru, Tattelecom, and St. Petersburg-based SkyNet. Symptoms vary by operator and region: some users lose only DoT, others lose DoH, and some experience both protocols blocked. Tattelecom technical support reportedly advised one customer to disable both protocols to regain access.
Although no official statement confirming centralized blocking has been released, the simultaneous occurrence of identical issues across multiple providers and both major public DNS services makes random failure highly unlikely.
Related articles
WhatsApp Adds Support for Multiple Passkeys on Single Account
WhatsApp has expanded its account protection features by allowing users to register more than one passkey on the same profile. The update particularly benefits users who switch between Android and iOS devices while maintaining phishing-resistant login methods. Passkeys replace traditional codes and passwords with biometric authentication, facial recognition, or device lock mechanisms. Meta reports that more than one billion people already use the feature on WhatsApp, with Android support introduced in 2023 and iOS support added in 2024. The change reduces reliance on a single device during authentication by associating multiple keys with one account. Users can manage keys through Settings > Account > Passkeys. WhatsApp has also strengthened two-factor verification by allowing replacement of the six-digit PIN with longer passwords containing letters, numbers, and special characters.
DuckDuckGo Study Shows Users Confide Sensitive Personal Details in AI Chatbots Without Realizing Data Retention
A new DuckDuckGo survey reveals that chatbots have evolved from simple search tools into digital confidants where users disclose highly personal information. Nearly one in three AI users admitted sharing details they would not discuss with friends, family, colleagues, or doctors. The figure rises sharply to 56 percent among users who describe themselves as strong AI enthusiasts. The research underscores that many people remain unaware that AI systems store and can later reference these conversations. This behavior creates significant privacy risks as conversational data becomes part of long-term model memory. The findings highlight a growing gap between user expectations and the actual data-handling practices of AI platforms.
Telegram Desktop Adds WEB Proxy to Hide MTProxy Traffic Inside HTTPS and WebSocket Connections
Telegram Desktop has received an initial implementation of a new WEB proxy designed to conceal messenger connections within ordinary HTTPS and WebSocket traffic. The feature makes user activity appear as simple website browsing to network providers while MTProxy continues to operate underneath. Developers inserted more than 3,000 lines of code, including a dedicated WEB-proxy transport, domain configuration options, and interface elements such as “Open browser” and “Waiting for browser.” The mechanism works by opening an embedded web page that establishes a secure WebSocket link to a domain resembling a regular site. Multiple MTProxy connections are multiplexed into a single stream and sent through this channel. On the server side an intermediate node demultiplexes the stream and forwards the individual connections to a standard MTProxy instance without decrypting message content.
Gesture Dynamics CAPTCHA Emerges as Privacy-Focused Drop-in Alternative to reCAPTCHA
A new open-source CAPTCHA system called Aptogon replaces traditional image-based challenges with analysis of hand gesture dynamics to verify human users. Instead of clicking on traffic lights or buses, visitors draw a free-form gesture for about ten seconds while the system measures velocity variance, pause entropy, rhythm irregularity, and micro-corrections that distinguish human motor patterns from bots. The solution addresses recent reCAPTCHA restrictions, including Google's reduction of free monthly verifications from one million to ten thousand and tightened GDPR data responsibility rules starting in April 2026. An iframe architecture loaded from the vendor origin eliminates cross-origin issues and CORS blocks while supporting public and secret key pairs for domain validation. Machine learning relies on a local gradient boosting model for confident decisions and an LLM only for borderline cases, with fail-closed behavior returning 503 errors when the classifier is unavailable. Coordinates never leave the browser; only derived statistics are sent, satisfying GDPR requirements without cookie banners or biometric templates. The project is released under AGPL-3.0 with a free tier of one thousand checks per month and integration examples for HTML, React, Node, Python, and PHP.