VLC Media Player Gets Banned In India Due To Chinese Hackers
VLC media player has been banned in India. This VideoLAN program is no longer working in India. Here is the exact reason behind this VLC ban.
Why Does VLC Media Player Get Banned?
Several reports have said that the reason behind the blocking of VLC media player in India is related to the cyber attacks being carried out by the Chinese-backed hacking group Cicada .
A few months ago, security experts reported that Cicada is using the VLC media player to spread a malicious malware loader as part of their larger cyber attack campaign.
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Notice On VLC Official Website
Due to the soft ban, no official announcement was made by both the company and the Government of India. However, many Twitter users have mentioned the ban on this platform.
A Twitter user named Gagandeep Sapra shared a screenshot of the VLC website, which reads, “The website has been blocked by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology under the IT Act, 2000.”
When Did VLC Get Launched?
First released in 2021, VLC Media Player is a free and open-source cross-platform media player software and streaming media server developed by the VideoLAN Project. With its help, video formats can also be changed.
VLC Download Link Is Blocked
Apart from the website of VLC media player, its download link has also been blocked in India. That is, this platform cannot be used for needs like streaming.
It has come to light that this media player has also been blocked by internet service providers like ACT Fibernet, Jio and Vodafone-Idea.
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However, the VLC for Android app is still available on the Google Play Store and users are still playing videos offline.
Chinese Govt-Inspired Hacking Group Sisada Was Doing Hacking Attacks
According to a report shared by Symantec , the Chinese government-inspired hacking group Sisada or APT10 is responsible for the attack involving the VLC media player.
Researchers had said that hackers are spying on government, legal, telecom, religious, pharmaceutical and non-governmental organizations by launching malware on Windows computers.
Such attacks are preying on users in countries like America, Canada, Hong Kong, Turkey, Israel, India, Montenegro, Italy and Japan.
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VLC Media Player Is Risky Now
As per media reports, It was blocked in India about 2 months ago. However, nothing has been said about this ban from both the company and the Government of India.
For data security and hacking, it is important that you do not use the VLC media player. Always take help of official websites and trusted platforms to download such other softwares.
Do not take the help of any third-party tool or website to update the media player. Apart from this, it is also important to keep checking the data-usage status of your device, which shows how much data an app is using in the background.
