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I don't know first hand, nor am I speaking for my employer (who happens to be one of the two companies you mentioned), but if it was me, I would assume that if

I don't know first hand, nor am I speaking for my employer (who happens to be one of the two companies you mentioned), but if it was me, I would assume that if my company doesn't do business outside of the United States, then may as well deny traffic for services that wouldn't be available outside of the United States, since it is more often than not problematic traffic. This means sometimes legit traffic would be inconvenienced, as you were, and sorry about that, but it is a realistic scenario that the small amount of legit pain is worth the incredibly reduced risk footprint. Of course, baddies could get VPNs, too, but that's all part of the game.

LVDOVICVS 3y ago
My Canadian stepfather died. Family is not close and I’m in the US. The Canadian newspaper where his obit would be doesn’t allow connections from the US. More than a “small amount of legit pain” was the result.
- couchand 3y ago
  I'm sorry for your loss. Do they have a phone?
- vlovich123 3y ago
  Was the site unavailable through archive.is? Also, plenty of people live far away from family and have to deal with death (I’m in the same boat). It sucks but I’m also curious why the obit was particularly important to you because as far as I understand that’s topically just a small blurb in the newspaper? My family doesn’t do obits so I’m curious. Not to minimize what you went through at all, but it’s interesting in today’s times how we expect so much immediacy. My immediate family escaped the USSR just before it collapsed but my dad’s was family was stuck in Russia and couldn’t leave even after it fell. My father had to deal with his brother, father, and mother dying within 5 years or so with no visits in between that time (a combination of finances + probably fear about traveling back). Comparatively I personally have a much easier time in that I at least get to see my family once a year or so. Again, in no way a comparison as dealing with loss and living far away from family is always hard. Just a reflection of how much technology has changed and made maintaining more closeness easier (eg video calling).
- eddieroger 3y ago
  I am sorry for your loss, and I'm not trying to minimize your pain. This is the problem with data, it's unfeeling and cold. You and I are two customers of something companies with lots more than us, and a spreadsheet doesn't capture our pains when we feel them.
ivanhoe 3y ago
> it is a realistic scenario that the small amount of legit pain is worth the incredibly reduced risk footprint. Well, I guess it depends on the type of attacks one experiences, but hackers and spammers who target US-based businesses are not idiots, they know how to use vpns and tor and proxies. So on a technical level you get close to nothing security-wise. You reduce a number of bots and worms randomly accessing your servers, can stop some script kiddies who don't know better and make life a bit harder to web scrapers (but not much) - and that's it.
lxgr 3y ago
> I would assume that if my company doesn't do business outside of the United States You forgot to consider "any of my company's existing US-resident customers temporarily traveling outside of the US".

LVDOVICVS 3y ago

My Canadian stepfather died. Family is not close and I’m in the US. The Canadian newspaper where his obit would be doesn’t allow connections from the US. More than a “small amount of legit pain” was the result.

couchand 3y ago
I'm sorry for your loss. Do they have a phone?
vlovich123 3y ago
Was the site unavailable through archive.is? Also, plenty of people live far away from family and have to deal with death (I’m in the same boat). It sucks but I’m also curious why the obit was particularly important to you because as far as I understand that’s topically just a small blurb in the newspaper? My family doesn’t do obits so I’m curious. Not to minimize what you went through at all, but it’s interesting in today’s times how we expect so much immediacy. My immediate family escaped the USSR just before it collapsed but my dad’s was family was stuck in Russia and couldn’t leave even after it fell. My father had to deal with his brother, father, and mother dying within 5 years or so with no visits in between that time (a combination of finances + probably fear about traveling back). Comparatively I personally have a much easier time in that I at least get to see my family once a year or so. Again, in no way a comparison as dealing with loss and living far away from family is always hard. Just a reflection of how much technology has changed and made maintaining more closeness easier (eg video calling).
eddieroger 3y ago
I am sorry for your loss, and I'm not trying to minimize your pain. This is the problem with data, it's unfeeling and cold. You and I are two customers of something companies with lots more than us, and a spreadsheet doesn't capture our pains when we feel them.

ivanhoe 3y ago

> it is a realistic scenario that the small amount of legit pain is worth the incredibly reduced risk footprint. Well, I guess it depends on the type of attacks one experiences, but hackers and spammers who target US-based businesses are not idiots, they know how to use vpns and tor and proxies. So on a technical level you get close to nothing security-wise. You reduce a number of bots and worms randomly accessing your servers, can stop some script kiddies who don't know better and make life a bit harder to web scrapers (but not much) - and that's it.

lxgr 3y ago

> I would assume that if my company doesn't do business outside of the United States You forgot to consider "any of my company's existing US-resident customers temporarily traveling outside of the US".