From: "Vladimir Z. Nuri" <vznuri@netcom.com>
Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 21:57:58 +0800
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: IP: ISPI Clips 4.47:Russian Big Brother covets all the E-mail
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From: "ama-gi ISPI" <offshore@email.msn.com>
Subject: IP: ISPI Clips 4.47:Russian Big Brother covets all the E-mail
Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 01:18:03 -0700
To: <Undisclosed.Recipients@majordomo.pobox.com>

ISPI Clips 4.47:Russian Big Brother covets all the E-mail
News & Info from the Institute for the Study of Privacy Issues (ISPI)
Saturday September 19, 1998
ISPI4Privacy@ama-gi.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This From: US News & World Report, September 14, 1998
http://www.usnews.com

Big Brother covets all the E-mail
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/980914/14key.htm

By
Christian Caryl


Believe it or not, there are some areas where Russia leads the world. While
other countries from Germany to Singapore ponder the pluses and minuses of
government regulation of the Internet, Russia is way ahead. Its State
Security Service (FSB), the main successor to the KGB, is planning
all-encompassing surveillance of Internet communications. Internet
activists say that the proposed regulations are proof of just how far
Russia's struggling democracy has to go. "There is no concept of privacy
anywhere in Russian legislation," says Andrei Sebrant of GlasNet, one of
the country's leading Internet service providers. "So strictly speaking,
there's nothing at all illegal about this."

The plans, which have never been officially presented or acknowledged by
the government, became public a few weeks ago, when they were leaked to
critics. The idea is to force each service provider to install a "black
box" connecting its network to the local FSB office via fiber-optic cable.

That would enable state-sponsored snoopers to collect and examine E-mail,
as well as data on addressees and recipients and Web surfing habits. Users,
meanwhile, would never have the slightest sign of prying eyes and ears.

The cost for the extra equipment would be borne by the providers
themselves. Anatoli Levenchuk, an Internet expert who posted the proposed
regulations on the Web and is leading the most vocal online protest, says
that the requirements would boost providers' costs by 10 to 15 percent.
That increase would be passed on to users, who already pay around $35 per
month, very expensive by Russian standards. "Right now, we have about 1
million Internet users in Russia," says Levenchuk. "So those price hikes
could immediately reduce the Internet community here by hundreds of
thousands." Any providers who refuse to comply can expect to have their
operating licenses yanked by the all-powerful Ministry of Communications,
which has been helping the FSB draft the rules.

But the FSB's plans may ultimately serve to prove just how resistant to any
kind of centralized control the Internet remains. The new proposal doesn't
address encryption, and the drug dealers and terrorists the FSB ostensibly
wants to catch will be the first to resort to tough-to-crack encryption
systems. Russian Web sites offering encryption technology have been doing a
booming business since the first news of the regulations came out. But most
Russian Internet users have little familiarity with encryption techniques,
according to Maksim Otstavnov, an editor at CompuTerra magazine. For them,
this could be the electronic equivalent of the days when the Soviet KGB
routinely tapped phones and opened mail.

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