June 24, 2016 at 12:59The State Duma adopted the entire package of "anti-terrorism" laws of Spring-Ozerov
Now, telecom operators, instant messengers and social networks will be required to keep users ’correspondence and voice messages for six months
Today, the State Duma adopted in the second and third readings the entire package of anti-terrorism laws proposed earlier by the chairman of the Duma’s security committee Irina Yarova and the head of the committee of the Defense and Security Council Viktor Ozerov. Amendments will be made to the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure, as well as to 10 separate laws, RIA writes . The amendments are set out in two bills ( first , second ).
The adoption of the package of amendments can have a strong impact on the future of the telecommunications sector in Russia. This applies to both companies working in this area, and ordinary citizens. For example, for public calls for terrorism on the Internet or the justification of terrorism, a punishment of imprisonment of five to seven years is introduced or a fine of 300,000 to 1 million rubles is imposed.
Initially, the authors of the amendment package proposed obliging telecom operators to store all the data of Russian users in Russia for three years. This applies to telephone conversations, text messages and images. According to experts , the budget for the implementation of these proposals would exceed the annual budget of the largest telecom operators in Russia. A user data storage system for only one of the companies, VimpelCom, would cost about $ 18 billion. Other companies have shown comparable amounts of expenses for creating the corresponding infrastructure. Moreover, the annual revenue of operators is much lower than the estimated costs. So, over the past year, Vimpelcom’s revenue in the Russian market amounted to $ 4.6 billion, MegaFon - $ 5.2 billion, MTS - $ 6.4 billion.
Therefore, the amendments were amended. Now, information on the facts of receiving and transmitting calls, text messages, photos, sounds and videos, operators will have to store in Russia for three years. Operators are also required to keep conversations and correspondence themselves, but not for three years, but for six months. In addition, telecom operators are required to provide law enforcement information about their users and the communication services provided to them.
The same requirements apply to instant messengers and social networks. There are also some concessions here: the period of storage of data on the transmission of messages has been reduced from three years to one year. And the content of correspondence companies will be required to store up to six months. When using message encoding, instant messengers and social networks are required to provide keys for decoding to the FSB. In case of non-fulfillment of the requirement, the citizen will be obliged to pay a fine in the amount of 3 to 5 thousand rubles; official - from 30 to 50 thousand rubles; legal entity - from 800 thousand to 1 million rubles. The FSB also freed from the need to compensate for damage caused during special operations.
So far, the procedure, terms and amount of information storage has not been established; this issue should be decided by the Russian government.
A separate punishment is now provided for the media for disclosure of information “constituting a state or other secret specially protected by law”. A delinquent publication will be required to pay a fine of up to a million rubles. To date, no punishment has been provided for such misconduct.
The new norm on the storage of transferred data comes into force on July 1, 2018.
The fact that the adoption of the proposal to store data and the correspondence of subscribers may lead to an increase in communication tariffs was previously warned by the head of the Ministry of Telecommunications and Communications Nikolai Nikiforov. “... technically this is possible, but extremely difficult and extremely costly - we are talking about huge amounts of costs. And therefore, we will present the relevant calculations to the legislators. If the bill is adopted in its current form, this will lead to a dramatic increase in prices for communication services. I am sure that neither the deputies, nor the State Duma, nor our citizens want this, ”said the Minister. He also said that it is still impossible to store all the data of subscribers, it is advisable to save only information about the fact of making calls and sending messages to subscribers.
According to the director of public relations of Megafon OJSC Peter Lidov, the costs of communication operators are likely to be reimbursed by ordinary citizens. He believes that the main benefit from the implementation of the package of amendments will be obtained by suppliers of equipment for storage systems. And these are probably American or Chinese companies, that is, the money will go abroad, and not to the budget.
Another challenge is the need to develop a reliable encryption system for user data stored. This is evidenced by the director of the Regional Public Center for Internet Technologies Sergey Grebennikov. According to him, the costs of developing and implementing such a system will also be huge .
As for the disclosure of encryption keys, then, firstly, not all companies are able to provide such keys. In the same WhatsApp messenger, encryption is carried out at the user level , information is not stored on the server. The company itself will not be able to decrypt user data at the request of the police, even if it wants to do it (for example, by court order). Facebook may refuse to provide encryption keys, and will not be able to meet the requirements of the FSB and Telegram, where end-to-end encryption also works. ”
Vice President and Technical Director of MailRu Group Vladimir Gabrielyan also believesthat cybercriminals can easily get users of small operators to stored information. Small companies are simply not able to ensure the security of a large array of user data. This can lead to a situation where on the network for a small amount it will be possible to buy records of telephone conversations of subscribers of small telecom operators.
Today, the State Duma adopted in the second and third readings the entire package of anti-terrorism laws proposed earlier by the chairman of the Duma’s security committee Irina Yarova and the head of the committee of the Defense and Security Council Viktor Ozerov. Amendments will be made to the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure, as well as to 10 separate laws, RIA writes . The amendments are set out in two bills ( first , second ).
The adoption of the package of amendments can have a strong impact on the future of the telecommunications sector in Russia. This applies to both companies working in this area, and ordinary citizens. For example, for public calls for terrorism on the Internet or the justification of terrorism, a punishment of imprisonment of five to seven years is introduced or a fine of 300,000 to 1 million rubles is imposed.
Personal data of subscribers and correspondence
Initially, the authors of the amendment package proposed obliging telecom operators to store all the data of Russian users in Russia for three years. This applies to telephone conversations, text messages and images. According to experts , the budget for the implementation of these proposals would exceed the annual budget of the largest telecom operators in Russia. A user data storage system for only one of the companies, VimpelCom, would cost about $ 18 billion. Other companies have shown comparable amounts of expenses for creating the corresponding infrastructure. Moreover, the annual revenue of operators is much lower than the estimated costs. So, over the past year, Vimpelcom’s revenue in the Russian market amounted to $ 4.6 billion, MegaFon - $ 5.2 billion, MTS - $ 6.4 billion.
Therefore, the amendments were amended. Now, information on the facts of receiving and transmitting calls, text messages, photos, sounds and videos, operators will have to store in Russia for three years. Operators are also required to keep conversations and correspondence themselves, but not for three years, but for six months. In addition, telecom operators are required to provide law enforcement information about their users and the communication services provided to them.
The same requirements apply to instant messengers and social networks. There are also some concessions here: the period of storage of data on the transmission of messages has been reduced from three years to one year. And the content of correspondence companies will be required to store up to six months. When using message encoding, instant messengers and social networks are required to provide keys for decoding to the FSB. In case of non-fulfillment of the requirement, the citizen will be obliged to pay a fine in the amount of 3 to 5 thousand rubles; official - from 30 to 50 thousand rubles; legal entity - from 800 thousand to 1 million rubles. The FSB also freed from the need to compensate for damage caused during special operations.
So far, the procedure, terms and amount of information storage has not been established; this issue should be decided by the Russian government.
State secret disclosure
A separate punishment is now provided for the media for disclosure of information “constituting a state or other secret specially protected by law”. A delinquent publication will be required to pay a fine of up to a million rubles. To date, no punishment has been provided for such misconduct.
When do amendments come into force?
The new norm on the storage of transferred data comes into force on July 1, 2018.
Probable difficulties during the implementation of the amendments
The fact that the adoption of the proposal to store data and the correspondence of subscribers may lead to an increase in communication tariffs was previously warned by the head of the Ministry of Telecommunications and Communications Nikolai Nikiforov. “... technically this is possible, but extremely difficult and extremely costly - we are talking about huge amounts of costs. And therefore, we will present the relevant calculations to the legislators. If the bill is adopted in its current form, this will lead to a dramatic increase in prices for communication services. I am sure that neither the deputies, nor the State Duma, nor our citizens want this, ”said the Minister. He also said that it is still impossible to store all the data of subscribers, it is advisable to save only information about the fact of making calls and sending messages to subscribers.
According to the director of public relations of Megafon OJSC Peter Lidov, the costs of communication operators are likely to be reimbursed by ordinary citizens. He believes that the main benefit from the implementation of the package of amendments will be obtained by suppliers of equipment for storage systems. And these are probably American or Chinese companies, that is, the money will go abroad, and not to the budget.
Another challenge is the need to develop a reliable encryption system for user data stored. This is evidenced by the director of the Regional Public Center for Internet Technologies Sergey Grebennikov. According to him, the costs of developing and implementing such a system will also be huge .
As for the disclosure of encryption keys, then, firstly, not all companies are able to provide such keys. In the same WhatsApp messenger, encryption is carried out at the user level , information is not stored on the server. The company itself will not be able to decrypt user data at the request of the police, even if it wants to do it (for example, by court order). Facebook may refuse to provide encryption keys, and will not be able to meet the requirements of the FSB and Telegram, where end-to-end encryption also works. ”
Vice President and Technical Director of MailRu Group Vladimir Gabrielyan also believesthat cybercriminals can easily get users of small operators to stored information. Small companies are simply not able to ensure the security of a large array of user data. This can lead to a situation where on the network for a small amount it will be possible to buy records of telephone conversations of subscribers of small telecom operators.