The Ministry found cyberscene successful, but DW interviewed experts called the threat fictional, and the results of the exercise is questionable.
All-Russian exercises “sovereign of the Internet”, which prescribes the law with the same name in Russia, were held on Monday, December 23, under the leadership of the Ministry of communications. According to the data previously published by the Department, they were expected to participate more than 20 Russian agencies, including the interior Ministry, defense Ministry, the FSB, Regardie, Roskomnadzor, mobile operators Rostelecom, MegaFon, VimpelCom and MTS, as well as the company “Kaspersky Lab”.
The communications Ministry said that it had tested a few scenarios – the job of the Internet when “external negative influences” protection against possible interception of personal customer data including their SMS and location – and also examined the risks in energy supply networks.
Why exercises “sovereign of the Internet”?
The task of the teachings, according to Deputy Minister Alexei Sokolov, – to organize sustainable operation of the Internet in Russia under any circumstances, that is, to provide citizens, business and government uninterrupted Internet access across the country. As stated in the Department, the participants gathered to analyze the threats of information systems interoperability and to reduce the risk of disconnection of subscribers in case of cyber attacks.
“Nonsense”, commented in an interview with DW declared objective Michael Klimarev, Director of non-profit organizations to combat Internet censorship society for the protection of the Internet (OZY). The expert explained that failures of communication, accidents and interruptions of traffic the operators are working “every minute of every day” and have for such cases a private information security departments, and repair and restoration crews that are engaged in the restoration of communication networks. “Until now, it somehow magically worked without MVD, FSB and “Kaspersky Lab” – outraged Klimarev.
His indignation was the fact that neither in public, nor even among the participants of the event there were no documents that clearly explain the objectives and the scenario of the exercises. “Some kind of legend they should be – who is the enemy who is attacking. Understanding against which we fight, if we conduct military exercises,” he says, explaining that without this coordination, all those invited to the teachings of the services impossible. “Because if we, those parts do not say in what direction they shoot, they shoot the parachutists” – Klimarev conducting parallel military exercises, explaining that the same principle applies to kibercinay.
Besides, according to Limarev, according to the regulations planned exercises must be announced at least two months, and unplanned – at least 10 days. And exercises “sovereign of the Internet”, according to experts, was declared for a week, after which time, postponed.
What threatens the Internet?
Scenarios of threats for Runet, which regularly speak of the Russian government, considers it an absolute invention, and one of the leading German Internet experts, Professor, University of Aarhus, Wolfgang Kleinwachter (Wolfgang Kleinwächter).
According to him, the main threat, which was the official reason for the adoption of the law on “sovereign Runet” – which allegedly the Russian sector of the Internet may be disconnected from the global network is technically just not feasible. He explains that to do this would be to remove the domain .at the same time, from all servers, thousands of copies are scattered around the world.
Even if we assume that the US administration will decide to withdraw the Russian domain .EN from servers in their territory, it would not affect Russian users, because the information would pass through other channels, says Professor Kleinwechter. “For example, mail from Moscow to Sao Paulo simply would not in the us server, and through Africa, Latin America or Europe,” he explains.
Wolfgang Kleinwachter calls the two possible causes isolation of Runet: political and economic. In his opinion, politically the Russian government may be interested in the symbolic propaganda of history, and to strengthen control of the Internet for national security. Economically, Russia may want to centralize the Internet infrastructure to better control the revenue from the Internet economy already in 2020.
What is over exercise?
The organizers were pleased with the results of the exercise and reported that authorities and operators are ready to respond effectively to risks and threats to the Internet in Russia.
The experts assessed the results of exercise skeptical. Philip cooking., author of Telegram channel locks on the Internet in Russia, “Esher II”, made two major findings: first, what exactly to test on the Internet, no one understood, and secondly, the legislators themselves are confused about the laws “on sustainable Runet” and “critical information infrastructure”.
Michael Klimarev sure that the Russians do not expect the sovereign of the Internet. “No work on sovereign Internet not conducted and will not be carried out”, – the expert said, explaining that there was no equipment, not even a technical task, not to mention his performance. Their understanding of the outcomes of the current exercise Klimarev formulated in a private Telegram-channel Satelcom: “Everything, as I said, they were drunk and didn’t do anything”.
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