The fight against bots and trolls continues.
The draft Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation “On Amendments to the Rules for the Centralized Management of the Public Communications Network”, developed by the Ministry of Digital Development, has been submitted for public discussion and, if approved, may enter into force on March 1, 2024.
The explanatory note to the document says that it concerns the activities of the organizers of the “instant messaging service” and is designed to exclude the possibility of anonymous use of social networks, instant messengers and Internet services.
The draft Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation “On Amendments to the Rules for the Centralized Management of a Public Communications Network”, developed by the Ministry of Digital Development, has been submitted for public discussion and, if approved, may enter into force on March 1, 2024. The explanatory note to the document states that it relates to the activities organizers of the “instant messaging service” and is designed to exclude the possibility of anonymous use of social networks, instant messengers and Internet services.
According to the developers of the resolution, “now it is possible to carry out identification in Internet services without reference to the user’s personal data.” “The receipt of identification SMS messages by the user of the service is carried out on the “virtual” DEF number provided to him from the resource of telecom operators of a number of foreign states that have leased their number resource to the service,” the explanatory note says. It is assumed that the restriction of anonymous use of social networks and instant messengers “will not entail socio-economic, financial and other consequences, including for subjects of entrepreneurial and other economic activities.”
The press service of the Ministry of Digital Development left unanswered ComNews’ questions about how telecom operators can ensure compliance with this requirement and how guilt will be established in case of its violation.
The press services of MTS PJSC and VimpelCom PJSC declined to comment. MegaFon PJSC and Tele2 (T2 Mobile LLC) did not respond to the publication’s requests.
Alena Ignatieva, Head of the STEP LOGIC Information Security Consulting and Audit Department, believes that the innovations “will allow us to get out of the gray zone of regulation the issues of blocking resources that are used by attackers for social engineering, misleading citizens, publishing false information, as well as anonymizers and VPN resources, used to bypass locks.
According to her, the new requirements will allow blocking fraudulent calls through popular instant messengers, but may create risks of blocking legitimate resources. “The main thing is not to throw out the baby with the water.”
“It is not always possible to understand that a VPN is not being used for fraudulent purposes. For example, many banking applications use VPN to exchange data with customers,” Alena Ignatieva added.
Changes to the rules will certainly be adopted, says Eldar Murtazin, a leading analyst at Mobile Research Group. He is confident that as soon as the necessary technical regulations are created, everything will work. “While the law enforcement practice is unclear and the technical regulations are unclear, it is not known how violations will be tracked. Most likely, it will be necessary to install equipment that will prevent certain users from accessing certain resources,” the expert explained, adding that a number of operators do not install such devices.
The creation of threat models and the approach from such positions of regulation of a set of operators’ networks are devoid of common sense, Sergey Efimov, General Director of the OTS Association, is convinced. “Society needs an ideology, and this cannot be cured by mechanical means. Everything proposed leads to the monopolization of the industry, and this has been done by a certain group of officials for a long time and consciously,” he explained.
The expert added that the discussed documents do not define who will be empowered to determine the fact of violation of the rules and identify the culprit in this. “It can be assumed that it will be Roskomnadzor, which will engage in extrajudicial censorship in favor of the interests of large operators, imposing fines on small ones,” he said. Sergey Efimov is sure that this creates a centralized management structure, the purpose of which is not to provide secure and high-quality communication services but to profit from fines. “Earlier, the communications industry accounted for about 1% of GDP, and when it was turned off, the rhythm of the work of enterprises was not disturbed. In the current conditions, this is already 2.5% of GDP and a strong dependence on the operation of information systems,” the expert explained.
