I have a question regarding VPN usage in South Korea and Saudi Arabia. I may go for short term work in either South Korea or Saudi for a few months. Does anybody have any idea, how safe it is to use a VPN as a foreigner in these countries? Worse case scenario, can I use a VPN in a Azure VM and scp torrent downloaded files or something?

  • Brkdncr@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    SK is a non-issue. I personally wouldn’t step foot in SA though. I don’t think they block vpn but they will ruin your day if they think you’re possibly related to a known objector.

    SK would only be an issue if you have reason to believe they would be interested in you for some reason.

      • Brkdncr@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        VPN usage is simple to detect. I don’t know how SA deals with it. If it’s like China you may get throttled considerably and “raise flags”

        I never had issues with SK but it’s been a minute. I doubt it will be an issue.

        • Couldbealeotard@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          How do they detect it?

          Are we talking commercial VPN like Nord or Proton? What about something like Tailscale to connect to your home network?

          • Brkdncr@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            VPN and any other encrypted app traffic has telltale signals. You might not be able to decode the content, but you can see who is talking to who, how often, how long, how much data, etc.

            My firewall, Palo Alto, and my dns service, Cisco umbrella, has no problem identifying people using VPNs on my networks.

  • randint@piefed.social
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    2 months ago

    No way you’d get into trouble in South Korea. Don’t worry about that. Can’t say much about Saudi Arabia though

    • Nightwatch Admin@feddit.nl
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      2 months ago

      This is the best answer. Torrents / possibly illegal downloads are a big no-no in many countries, if you’re truly a movie addict: buy a portable dvd drive and a bunch of movies (2nd hand can be very cheap nowadays). Additional advantage: internet access is still not very good in many places. On VPNs: there are several options, a commercial one like Nord, your company’s (never, ever torrent over your company networks!) or a self hosted. My home router can run ipsec and wireguard services, yours possibly too. DO REMEMBER: VPN traffic is very recognisable, if the local ISP thinks it’s sus, questions may be asked; better be careful.