How the autonomous Runet will work and how it threatens users

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The President signed the law on the sovereign Runet. Site blocking will be faster and more accurate, and in the event of external threats, Russians will be able to disconnect from the World Wide Web.

What is the essence of the law

If you do not go into technical details (we will do this further), then the meaning of the document is as follows. After the law comes into force, Roskomnadzor will be able to take over the centralized management of the Internet.

Pavel Lapin system administrator

This will allow the department to carry out blocking of various scales - from specific sites to the closure of traffic channels, including cross-border ones. The locks themselves will become more accurate and faster. Roskomnadzor will also be able to completely isolate Runet from within.

Such powers are given to the department in the event of threats to the stability, security and integrity of the functioning of the Internet in Russia. Which ones are not yet known. The Russian government will later decide on the list and present the Russians with a fact. In normal situations, providers will deal with blocking, as before.

In theory, Roskomnadzor can, if necessary, take all these measures even before the law enters into force. But now this path is longer. The department sends an order to the provider, who blocks the delinquent. It takes more time and the accuracy is poor. For example, during a large-scale hunt for Telegram IP addresses, the work of Facebook, Twitter, VKontakte, and Yandex that accidentally came to hand was disrupted.

Why is it needed

According to the official version, the law should ensure the safe and stable functioning of the Internet in Russia. A system will be created thanks to which Runet will work even if the country is disconnected from the global network. As follows from the explanatory note, these measures are being taken in response to possible actions on the part of the United States.

In practice, a sudden shutdown of the global Internet is less likely than in the statements of politicians.

There is no "black suitcase" in which there is an emergency button to disconnect Russia from the Network. But on the whole, the West has the technical capabilities for this. For example, in 2012, the United States accidentally turned off the internet in Syria while trying to track data. At the same time, there are no cases when this would have been done on purpose.

Also, the new law, by design, should protect Russian data from leakage. Now part of the information can be transmitted through communication lines that are actually located abroad, which creates an opportunity for their interception. At the same time, studies show that only 3% of domestic Russian traffic goes outside the country and is transmitted most often through Sweden, Germany and Ukraine. Usually foreign networks are used if such a route turns out to be shorter and cheaper.

Legislators insist that they have no goal of restricting Russians' access to the external Internet.

What will change the law

The document implies several global steps at once:

1. Operators will be required to install technical means to counter security threats on their networks and report to Roskomnadzor where exactly they did it. It is not yet known what these devices are, but they will be issued free of charge. According to preliminary estimates, 30 billion rubles will be allocated from the budget for this, and this is not the final amount. For comparison: the budget expenditures of the Tomsk region for 2019 are estimated at 33.8 billion.

How to install and use such devices is not yet known. This will be decided later by the government. The devices will filter traffic and block prohibited Internet resources, including automatically.

2. Operators and other organizations subject to the law will be obliged to report communication channels that cross the Russian border to Roskomnadzor. They will also report on why the communication line is being used and what communication facilities are installed on it.

3. Roskomnadzor will create a register of traffic exchange points. These are the communication nodes that providers connect to in order to shorten data transmission routes and reduce traffic costs. Operators will also be obliged to report data on the structure of networks.

4. A national domain name system will be formed, which will store information about Russian network addresses and domain names. There are no details about her in the law. It is known that a certain non-profit system, accountable to Roskomnadzor, will be engaged in the creation of the system.

5. Exercises are envisaged for telecom operators, during which they must work out actions in the event of threats to the Runet.

6. Government agencies will have to switch to Russian encryption tools, including when exchanging information with citizens.

How does it threaten Internet users

Network failures

In the early stages of implementing a law aimed at Internet resilience, this very resilience may suffer significantly. The possibility of failures during the installation of traffic control devices is not excluded in the text of the normative act itself. Therefore, Gazprom has already asked to remove the company's networks from the law, since violations in their work can lead to emergency situations.

Providers will not be penalized for failures caused by new control devices. This is spelled out in the law.

Locks

In the future, much will depend on the list of threats that the government will form and the scale of the blocking. In targeted attacks, users will lose access to specific sites. The worst scenario of disconnecting Runet from the global network will make it impossible to visit all foreign sites, play online games, buy in international online stores, use international payment systems, and work if you are an employee of a foreign company.

As for bypassing locks, a lot will depend on how strongly Roskomnadzor decides to tighten the screws.

If the Runet is completely isolated, the VPN will no longer help, since there simply will not be channels to "hook" on the required server. We'll have to wait for worldwide Wi-Fi from Elon Musk or invent new ways to transit traffic.

Pavel Lapin

In case of blocking of individual sites or channels, the VPN will work. The Russians have already learned how to use it during the battle between Roskomnadzor and Telegram.

Disconnecting the Internet during exercises

Separately, it is worth mentioning the exercises in which providers are required to participate. They can become a lever for turning off the Internet in some territory without any external threats. If discontent is brewing in the region, it is enough to announce an exercise to stop the spread of information.

There is another possible consequence that does not seem incredible. The law will be adopted, nothing terrible will happen, users will calm down, and Runet is isolated slowly and gradually, creating an infrastructure for more or less stable work in the process. Of course, when the public realizes it will be too late.

Data openness

The transition to Russian means of encryption, if this norm of the law eventually affects not only government agencies, will facilitate the decryption of data for special services: the law is already expanding their powers, however, the formulations are still vague.

When the law comes into force

The provisions of the law come into force on November 1. The creation of a national domain name system and the transition of government agencies to domestic crypto-encryption tools have been postponed until January 1, 2021.