Pakistan becomes VPN routing hot-spot

IT SEEMS THAT purposeful Pakistanis have found a clever, free way of bypassing their government's ban on video site Youtube. The site was blocked on Sunday supposedly due to its content, thought disrespectful to Islam.

But free VPN software Hotspot Shield is allowing thousands of Pakistanis to get around their government's internet censorship.

The plug-in for Windows or OS X, offers free VPN services, which have, to date, mainly focused on protecting private information from hackers, taking advantage of wireless connections.

The software creates a tunnel (or secure pipe) between any internet user worldwide. Then, when it's turned on, all traffic is encrypted and routed directly through Hotspot Shield, thereby disguising the true location of the user on the end connection.

Because Hotspot Shield is based in the US, every user can therefore get a American internet experience, which includes access to YouTube and its disrespectful videos.

A company spinner reported a significant rise in the software's usage in Pakistan since the ban was imposed.

Tech Crunch previously reported that the service was being used to access content from video streaming sites like HULU (which is blocked to anyone trying to access it from outside the USA) and Pandora (the personalised internet radio service, also not available from outside the US). µ