By Kevin Coleman — Defense Tech Cyberwarfare Correspondent
According to Russian news agencies a senior Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) official made the proposal to ban Skype, Gmail and Hotmail as major threats to national security. The proposal was quickly rejected by a Kremlin official. The FSB’s proposal came amidst highly publicized cyber attacks on one of Russia’s most popular blogs, as well as the website of a popular independent newspaper this week. Most recently the popular LiveJournal site came under cyber attack. Analysis of the attacks found they were highly organized and well-financed. The facts as well as a number of motives have many saying these are all the hallmarks of an FSB cyber attack. There was also the mention of banning foreign Internet services and commentators. This was interpreted as an effort by the government to tighten controls on communications before parliamentary elections in December 2011 and a presidential vote in March 2012. It is clear the FSB believes the openly available encryption services that support services like Gmail, Hotmail, Skype and others is a large threat to Russian security. One knowledgeable source said, “This is a concerted effort by the FSB to get access to encryption keys needed to decrypt communications.” You have to pause and think about – what made the FSB so concerned? It is not like many things cause the FSB to make a statement like this.
While I never thought I would be quoting Julian Assange, he did say, “While the Internet has in some ways an ability to let us know to an unprecedented level what government is doing, and to let us co-operate with each other to hold repressive governments and repressive corporations to account, it is also the greatest spying machine the world has ever seen” and he was right! As governments and spy agencies around the world have shown, the Internet is a critical area for intelligence collection and monitoring of threats against the government they represent.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I say, let companies who specialize in computer technology and networking, create new security measures and protocols. I think for the government, they need to drastically overhaul how they allow people clearance to access government computers and insert pen drives and cds into the computers. I don't think the government has any business handling internet "security".
Too susceptable to corruption and the government can't run anything right. Leave it to the private sector to come up with solutions. We're smarter than the government. We can handle ourselves.
After WW2, many opposed the Nazi trials as victors' Justice, and that the government officials acted lawfully. The argument that prevailed was that the Nazi's stole power from the people, were effectively a criminal conspiracy seeking to steal the liberty of everyone for its own gain. Our government should tell Russia to go F itself, and do whatever we can to spread encryptions and obfuscation technology, as well as empower the people to shame and embarrass the crooks running Russia and their ilk. Empowering people to remove the criminal cabals running their governments is worth a little diplomatic heartburn from released cables and is the greatest thing we could do to enhance our long term secutiry
That's a great way to put it….i guess!My words would be…"Almost everyone on the internet is Crazy".You guy's are really great….Thanks Alot!
I am not sure I would put it in those words, but a little extra power to the people is always a good thing.
Governments and corporations have always had massive power to spy on 'people'.(In the power industrial world at minimum). They have also has huge imbalance in command, control, and communication in their favor. Today however everyone gets that same set of power, those systems that allowed large institutions to collate data on a massive scale now belong to everyone. These massive institutions are going to need to learn that hiding things from the public can only be done for the most important things and then only if carefully watched and even then they are unlikely to say hidden for long. The internet and it's network of networks is a fundamental change in communication and data collation the likes of which have not been seen sense the invention of writing.
VoIP is eating into the Russian telco profits. The FSB should quit whining and build its own Facebook like the NSA did.
FSB already have their own Facebook, and it is used to spy on people: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vkontakte
No need for interrogation lamps and truth serums. Big Brother never had it easier!
Seems to be a bit of fuss about nothing. The FSB proposal is kinda what you’d expect from them – entirely conforms to the stereotypical view of their KGB culture. But the key things are that the proposal was immediately knocked back by the Kremlin, and also that everyone knows about it – which would suggest that the Russians think it was a daft idea.