Telecom operators will conduct a "field test" of the law on the stability of the Runet

Today it became known that members of the Information Security working group (this is the group that implements the federal project of the Digital Economy program of the same name) recommended testing the communications networks in accordance with the provisions of the Runet Sustainability Act. The results of the "exercises" will help to understand the actual threats against which protective measures will be required, as RBC writes .

The participants in the group spoke about the tests at a meeting held on January 24th. Its members are MegaFon, VimpelCom, MTS, Rostelecom and other companies. The head of the group is Natalya Kasperskaya, President of InfoWatch.

After analyzing the threats, the working group will be able to recommend amendments that will need to be made to the draft law on sovereign Runet for the second reading. It is necessary to complete field trials and formulate proposals by April 1.

“All participants in the discussion agree that he has good goals, but the mechanisms for its implementation raise many questions and disputes. Moreover, the methods of its implementation have not yet been precisely defined. Therefore, we came to the conclusion that market participants need to organize exercises or something similar in order to understand how this can all be implemented in practice, ”said Kasperskaya.

The fact that the implementation of the bill could lead to disruptions of the Internet, was first reported by the working group "Communication and IT" in December 2018. If that happens, the state will have to spend on compensation for companies whose total amount will be 134 billion rubles a year. In addition, funds will also be required to create and maintain a registry of traffic exchange points and expand Roskomnadzor’s staff; experts estimate the costs at 25 billion rubles.

According to experts, the bill is not feasible, since operators will have to transfer to Roskomnadzor the entire scheme of their network and traffic routing. And this can not be done, because the network is not static, it is constantly expanding and updating. The authors of the bill argued that the budget for the implementation of the provisions of the document is not needed. But the representative of VimpelCom does not agree with this opinion. According to him, the operators will incur costs, since the installation of servers for the implementation of the bill will cost the operator 500 million rubles.

As for the government, it generally supports the bill, although it recommends finalizing the document. In particular, the Cabinet noted the uncertainty in the definition of threats to the integrity, stability and security of the Runet, as written in the document.

Representatives of the Information Security Working Group for the most part agree with the draft law, in that part of it, which refers to the “need to ensure a stable and secure network operation”. Nevertheless, to solve the problem of centralized control of the Network, special mechanisms of interaction between regulators and telecom operators are needed. In the current edition there are none; for the second reading, missing points need to be added.

By the second reading it is also necessary to indicate who will be responsible if due to the work of the new equipment any interruptions in access to the Internet arise. It should be noted that the state will be engaged in the equipment, including maintenance, service support, software updates, performance monitoring, repair and replacement.

Earlier it was reported that the implementation of the provisions of the law requires about 2 billion rubles . After some time, followed by a new statement. Senator Klishas thinks he needs 10 times more. In the passport of the project "Information Security". Approved by the government, it is listed 20 billion rubles. According to the senator, first of all, it is planned to create a Monitoring Center, with its help the structure of the Network will be analyzed, and also the threats and equipment will be identified, allowing them to counteract.

For the first time, legislators spoke about the autonomy of Runet in 2014. Then it was decided to create a backup copy of the infrastructure - namely, duplicate elements of the Global Network in the Russian Federation. The main goal was to ensure the smooth operation of the Internet in the country in case of unforeseen threats from the outside. These goals were repeated by President Vladimir Putin three years later, at a meeting of the Security Council in 2017.