The VLC Media Player has been banned by all major internet service providers in the country. However, the video streaming provider can be accessed on phone or laptop using any VPN service.
New Delhi: The quiet ban on open source, cross-platform VLC media player website by the government in India may have been the result of a "China connection" as a hacker group with Beijing links infiltrated VLC Media Player with a malware to hack devices.
According to cyber-security researchers at Symantec, the Cicada victims are found in India, the US, Canada, Israel, Hong Kong and several other countries.
In April, the Cicada group attacked several countries, targeting high-profile victims.
The researchers at Symantec found that the China-based attackers used VLC Media Player to install a malware on compromised devices.
The VLC Media Player has been banned by all major internet service providers in the country. However, the video streaming provider can be accessed on phone or laptop using any VPN service.
It is also available for download on Apple App store and Google Play store.
There's no official word from the government yet on why the access to VLC website has been restricted in the country.
VLC media player is developed by the VideoLAN project.
VLC supports many audio and video compression methods and file formats, including DVD-Video, Video CD and streaming protocols.
It is able to stream media over computer networks and can transcode multimedia files.
VLC, like most multimedia frameworks, has a very modular design which makes it easier to include modules/plugins for new file formats, codecs, interfaces, or streaming methods.
VLC Media Player banned in India: The popular media player VLC Media Player has been banned in India. The company has now confirmed the same. The president of VideoLAN has also acknowledged the ban reports and said that the media player is working on some ISPs, but not on others.Several questions emerge at this point: why is the VLC Media player website and download link blocked in India suddenly? And what is the company or the Indian government saying on the matter? Let’s answer all these questions.
Why is VLC Media Player banned in India?
The developer of VLC Media Player, VideoLAN, has officially confirmed the ban that almost no one noticed. The ban was first reported by MediaNama nearly two months ago. The official reason behind the ban hasn’t been revealed yet. Some reports, though, suggest that VLC Media Player has been banned in the country because the platform was used by China-backed hacking group Cicada for cyber attacks. Just a few months ago, security experts discovered that Cicada was using VLC Media Player to deploy a malicious malware loader as part of a long-running cyber attack campaign.
What is VideoLAN, creator of VLC Player, saying?
Now, VideoLAN said that the media player was banned in India back on February 13. The company, though, didn’t state any reason behind the ban yet. In one of its latest tweets counting India Today Tech’s story, VideoLAN was seen asking for help from people in India since the company doesn’t have any idea why VLC Media Player, used widely, has been banned suddenly.
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