Sorm: Russia Intends To Monitor "All Communications" At Sochi Olympics

dryriver writes with this excerpt from The Guardian: "Athletes and spectators attending the Winter Olympics in Sochi in February will face some of the most invasive and systematic spying and surveillance in the history of the Games, documents shared with the Guardian show. Russia's powerful FSB security service plans to ensure that no communication by competitors or spectators goes unmonitored during the event, according to a dossier compiled by a team of Russian investigative journalists looking into preparations for the 2014 Games. The journalists ... found that major amendments have been made to telephone and Wi-Fi networks in the Black Sea resort to ensure extensive and all-permeating monitoring and filtering of all traffic, using Sorm, Russia's system for intercepting phone and internet communications. Ron Deibert, a professor at the University of Toronto and director of Citizen Lab, which co-operated with the Sochi research, describes the Sorm amendments as "Prism on steroids", referring to the programme used by the NSA in the US and revealed to the Guardian by the whistleblower Edward Snowden."

Comments

Monitoring

[EuclideanSilence]

That's just what oppressive governments do. They have to monitor everything to stay in power.

Re:Monitoring

[sjames]

That's just the theater. The real power never appears on television.

Re:Monitoring

[Anonymous Coward]

President of US has no absolute power over everything, the same is true for Putin. If you think Putin is some absolutist czar and can do whatever he wants, you are watching western propaganda too much. The difference is that right now the two faction that hold power in US are in fight, while in Russia they are mostly playing along. Putin and Obama are figureheads.

Tell that joke about zero consequences to Snowden or to people from Occupy, to name just two examples. I would grant you that Russia government is more thinly-skinned, but even in Russia you can voice opposition to various degrees, and even in US if you try to mount too effective opposition, you will be whacked hard.

Re:Monitoring

[Anonymous Coward]

At least Russia tells you they're monitoring you in advance. In US, you're monitored 24/7 all year round and you only find out about it through evil "traitors" like Snowden.

This is new?

[reemul]

Face it, the IOC is perfectly OK with corruption, oppression, censorship, and spying, as long as committee members get their payoffs, a pleasant facade is maintained while cameras are rolling, and nobody but Jews get killed. Russia wishes they could have the all encompassing monitoring that Beijing had, but they just don't currently have the resources. Keeping the athletes in segregated housing simply makes it easier to ensure that every single area is bugged, and each and every person there that the participants can possibly come in contact with is engaged in intelligence collecting.