Up to 15 years for VPNs — Cyberpolice exposes «hacker» who provided access to Russian sites

The Cyber Police Department exposed the organizer of a VPN that provided access to banned Russian resources. As it turns out, such activities can be punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

On the official website and social networks Cyberpolice says that the department’s office in Khmelnytskyi region, together with the National Police and the Security Service of Ukraine ceased operations service that provided access to Russian websites banned by the NSDC restrictions. A 28-year-old resident of Khmelnytskyi, who is called a hacker for some reason, organized «illegal activity of the VPN service».

«Startup» allowed access to more than 48 million IP addresses of the Russian Internet segment, bypassing NSDC sanctions. According to the investigation, the daily volume of network traffic exceeded 100 gigabytes.

To set up Internet traffic with the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and regions of Russia, the suspect equipped an autonomous server room in his apartment. In addition, the offender rented servers located in Germany, France, the Netherlands and Russia. Thanks to this, enemy special services had technical access to information about all users of the VPN service».

The cyber police say they conducted searches at the offender’s and his alleged accomplices’ homes in Khmelnytskyi and Zhytomyr. The police seized servers, computers and phones with evidence of illegal activity. A version of the suspect’s cooperation with Russia is being worked out.

«Investigators served the suspect a notice of suspicion under Part 5 of Art. 361 of the Criminal Code He faces up to 15 years in prison with deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for up to three years».

Against the backdrop of this «grandiose» exposure, the question arises whether the Cyberpolice is aware of the existence of many VPN services on the network, most of which, by definition, can easily provide access to any Russian and other resources? I also wonder if VPNs are banned in Ukraine if their organizers are arrested.