[Infowarrior] - Russia considering separation from global internet in ‘emergencies’, report says

[Richard Forno]

Russia considering separation from global internet in ‘emergencies’, report says

By David Meyer
4 hours ago

https://gigaom.com/2014/09/19/russia-considering-separation-from-global-internet-in-emergencies-report-says/

Summary:

A Friday report in Vedomosti suggests that, on 22 September, President Putin will meet with the country’s security council to discuss the possibility of cutting out the foreign internet in times of strife.

The Kremlin is considering ways to cut the Russian internet off from the global internet, according to a Friday report in the business newspaper Vedomosti.

The details are hazy and the Russian communications ministry apparently doesn’t know about the scheme, but Vedomosti claimed that on Monday the country’s security council and President Vladimir Putin will discuss emergency powers to cut out the rest of the world, perhaps by disabling non-Russian IP addresses. Under this plan, Russian ISPs would need to install equipment to allow this to be done in “emergencies”, such as during war or heavy protests.

Vedomosti said it had learned of the plans through telcos, ISPs and non-profit organizations, who said the security meeting will also evaluate the results of a recent test of the Russian internet’s stability.

The practicality of such a move would be highly debatable, and of course contingent on the sort of mechanisms being discussed. However, a recent law forces web services to store Russians’ personal data within the country — not only does this make it easier for Russian spies to access this data, as it is supposed to be stored in Russian data centers using locally formulated, government-approved algorithms, but it could also be a mechanism to make the separation of the Russian internet more tenable.

The U.S. has decried such local storage mandates, saying Edward Snowden’s NSA revelations should be no excuse for breaking up the internet.


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