Internet - Russia rehearses the exit

The Russian government is testing the exit from the Domain Name System: according to the Interfax news agency, test exercises have been carried out to ensure the functionality of information systems in the event of a disconnection from the global network.

The Interfax report was preceded by reports that residents in the three regions of Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia were blocked from accessing foreign websites such as Google and YouTube for around 24 hours at the beginning of December 2024. In addition, social media and messaging services such as Whatsapp and Telegram could no longer be used; even some services of the Russian-Dutch internet company Yandex were no longer accessible, not even via a virtual private network (VPN). According to the Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Information Technology and Mass Communications (Roskomnadzor), the purpose of the exercise was to test the security and stability of Runet. “The task of the exercise is to confirm the readiness of the Russian Internet infrastructure to ensure the availability of important foreign and Russian services in the event of a deliberate external attack,” reads a report distributed via Telegram. The press service recalled that the verification of the readiness of key systems to ensure the sustainability of the Russian Internet is carried out annually in accordance with Decree No. 1316 of the Government of the Russian Federation of October 12, 2019.

Roskomnadzor warned of possible restrictions on the work of a number of foreign hosting providers in Russia in the future. Specifically mentioned are GoDaddy.com LLC, Amazon Web Services Inc, HostGator.com LLC, Kamatera Inc, Ionos Inc, Network Solutions LLC, DigitalOcean LLC and Hetzner Online GmbH. They are said to have failed to meet the authority's requirements. According to Russian law, companies providing hosting services must “ensure the security of information in their infrastructure, cooperate with the Center for Monitoring and Control of the Public Communications Network to counter DDoS attacks, participate in exercises to ensure the stability of the Russian segment of the Internet and apply for inclusion in the Roskomnadzor Register of Hosting Providers”. The aim is to encourage the Russian population to migrate their websites from Western to Russian hosting providers. The Kremlin is said to have recently invested the equivalent of around US$648 million in developing its technical capabilities to restrict internet traffic and has made efforts to force Russians to migrate from Western social media platforms to domestic platforms that are easier to control.

In any case, free access to information on the internet in the Western style does not exist in Russia. Hosting providers have to verify the identity of their users, for example via a mobile phone number or the state's Unified System of Identification and Authentication (ESIA), which also uses biometric identification features.

More information: https://www.yahoo.com/tech/russia-tests ... 42266.html