The Kremlin has already begun work on plans to monitor and decrypt Russia's online traffic in real-time, the Kommersant newspaper has reported.
Kommersant reported that Natalya Kaspersky, CEO of cyber-security firm InfoWatch and a member of the Kremlin's IT and Sovereignty working group, confirmed that talks on the project were already under way. Kaspersky later denied the claims, saying that the newspaper had "twisted her words."
The newspaper reported on Wednesday that the Kremlin could try to decipher Internet traffic in real-time to replace controversial anti-terror legislation. The law, part of the infamous “Yarovaya package” stipulated that all online and mobile communications needed to be stored for six months.
The plan prompted a widespread backlash from Russian businesses, with the country's largest mobile operators claiming that the the move would see them forced to spend 2.2 trillion rubles ($33.8 billion) on new infrastructure and maintenance.
Russia’s Deputy Minister for Economic Development, Oleg Fomichev, went on to admit in July that the data storage infrastructure needed to put the law into force did not exist anywhere in the world.
Security services are
investigating the use of Man
in the Middle (MITM) attacks or Deep
Packet Inspection (DPI) in order to monitor encrypted traffic and search it for keywords such as
“bomb,” Kommersant reported.
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