Indonesia sparks outrage by blocking PayPal, gaming sites, for compliance oversight Indonesia has blocked access to PayPal, Yahoo!, plus Epic Games and Steam, sparking outrage among local netizens so fierce that the Ministry responsible has wound back its restrictions on PayPal for a few days. The bans were flagged in recent weeks after Indonesia required online businesses to register as Private Scope …
What’s routing protocols got to do with blocking websites?
Ok. Before you get smart, BGP sinkholes *could* and *are* used to block IP addresses, typically to block a DoS these days, but it means you’d be blocking any and all services hosted on whatever the IP you’re blocking is. Which is why you can resolve multiple FQDNs to the same IP address and whatever content you’re after is sent from whatever content or application delivery controller/system the host has.
Wow - this used to be a technical website.
E.g. IP addresses could be generated dynamically on the fly if there was a routing problem, and sent to the region (e.g. the US) where the service is located. At the point of entry the IP address would be translated to the real IP address.
So, the sending country only knows that packets are destined for the US, with an otherwise fairly random IP address.
I thought of that just off the top of my head. I'm sure people could come up with other stuff.
How they are implementing it is interesting but immaterial.
The key is that Indonesia required foreign companies deemed “Private Electronic System Providers” must register. The registration requires a self-assessed (non-audited) certification that "they've complied with local security and privacy requirements."
That's it. Foreign companies that ignored it are being punished - as they should be. From another article, it appears Google and Amazon requested an extension before the deadline and that's why they weren't on the list.
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