Russian Federation

[RU] FSB details new rules for telecom sector

IRIS 2016-9:1/25

Andrei Richter

Comenius University (Bratislava)

On 19 July 2016 the Federal Security Service (FSB) of the Russian Federation adopted a set of rules to facilitate its remote access to decoding information from “organizations that distribute information” online (Internet and telecom providers), such as all text, voice, graphic, sound, video, and any other messages of their customers. It follows the recently adopted amendments to the federal statutes “On Communications” and “On Information, Information Technologies, and Protection of Information” (see IRIS 2016-8/31).

The procedures approved by the FSB stipulate that the Organization and Analytics Department of the Research and Technology Service of the FSB shall be authorised to claim and obtain information essential for decoding. Such a demand from the FSB shall be provided in writing, signed by the head of the department (or his deputy), and sent by registered mail with a return receipt requested. The demand will specify the address to which the information should be provided on a magnetic disk, or whether the provider should organise remote access to the decoding information (cipher) required. No court decision is necessary to verify the legitimacy of such a demand. If the demand is ignored there is a legal possibility to block access to such service or website.

The register of “organizations that distribute information” online is compiled by the governmental supervisory authority, Roskomnadzor (see IRIS 2012-8/36). Currently it consists of 65 Russian entities, including the “big four”: Yandex, Mail.ru, Rambler, and VKontakte. It is collected in either a voluntary or compulsory manner. At the same time, FSB is not limited to address its demands only to those on the Roskomnadzor list: accoridng to press reports such demands will likely be addressed to companies that use https encoding.


References

  • Об утверждении Порядка представления организаторами распространения информации в информационно-телекоммуникационной сети "Интернет" в Федеральную службу безопасности Российской Федерации информации, необходимой для декодирования принимаемых, передаваемых, доставляемых и (или) обрабатываемых электронных сообщений пользователей информационно-телекоммуникационной сети "Интернет"
  • http://publication.pravo.gov.ru/Document/View/0001201608120037

Related articles

IRIS 2016-8:1/31 [RU] New rules for telecom sector

IRIS 2012-8:1/36 [RU] New Rules for Internet

This article has been published in IRIS Legal Observations of the European Audiovisual Observatory.