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Russia Cracks Down On Public Wi-Fi; Oracle Blocks Java Downloads In Russia
Linking to a story at Reuters, reader WilliamGeorge writes "Russia is further constraining access to the internet and freedom of speech, with new laws regarding public use of WiFi. Nikolai Nikiforov, the Russian Communications Minister, tweeted that "Identification of users (via bank cards, cell phone numbers, etc.) with access to public Wifi is a worldwide practice." This comes on top of their actions recently to block websites of political opponents to Russian president Vladimir Putin, require registration of prominent bloggers, and more. The law was put into effect with little notice and without the input of Russian internet providers. Sergei Plugotarenko, head of the Russian Electronic Communications Association, said "It was unexpected, signed in such a short time and without consulting us." He added, "We will hope that this restrictive tendency stops at some point because soon won't there be anything left to ban." In addition to the ID requirement to use WiFi, the new law also requires companies to declare who is using their web networks and calls for Russian websites to store their data on servers located in Russia starting in 2016."
That's not the only crackdown in progress, though: former Slashdot code-wrestler Vlad Kulchitski notes that Russian users are being blocked from downloading Java with an error message that reads, in essence, "You are in a country on which there is embargo; you cannot download JAVA." Readers at Hacker News note the same, though comments there indicate that the block may rely on a " specific and narrow IP-block," rather than being widespread. If you're reading this from Russia, what do you find?
Is that we never end them. We implement them, then due to our collective national ego that manifests most clearly in congress, never roll them back for partial success. We take a hardline of "our way or the highway" and the highway ends up looking more appealing to your Cubas, your Irans, and now your Russias.
"The stick" only works when the donkey can see a future where it won't be beaten.
P.S. That's not to say anything other than screw Putin and his imperial ambitions.
Another job creator falls victim to Great Leader Obama's socialist paradise.
Guess the poor guy didn't know about having to send his bribes in to stay in the Great Leader's good graces.
the russians shoot down ellisons plane in retaliation
However, in soviet russia, Java programs you
I just hope they don't block regular people from going to Russia again before my visa expires. It pisses me off to no end that I'll probably never be able to see Havana. Freedom isn't actually free, I guess...
the WiFi IDs YOU
what Snowden has done is pretty much as if somebody during WW2 would leave UK or US and find refuge to Germany because he founds that those countries are unfair to some minorities.
It was good while it lasted. Now the real owners of the world came to the conclusion that the internet undermines the total control of them, so they are eliminating it as they did with many other technologies and groups who tried to give power to the people.
Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
It's not even a law, but an executive decree.
THIS might kill Java (tm).
Oracle is Blocking Downloads to Russian IP addresses? Is there anybody who thinks this will in anyway help?
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Funny thing, when Putin does this he is a communist but when Obama does this he is not?
Are you sure the US has sanctions on Turkey?
So not a that long ago they took down their physical walls. Now it seems they want to replace them with virtual walls. Russia is starting to look and act just like the Russia I grew up with in the 70's.
Not entirely surprising that Tsariski Putin is putin the clampdown on free speech. Bad thing, yadda yadda.
But oracle blocking java downloads? So much for its promises of free availability. And yet more reason to abandon java, or at least their implementation thereof. Because they've just thrown away the idea that this here thing universally runs everywhere.
wtf is the point?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
...then access to the Internet no longer looks like "free speech" or an economic stimulant. It now simply looks like foreign surveillance of my citizens, who are ignorant to how they're being harvested and used for the interest of external powers. If life were a game of Civ, and I was playing as Russia, I'd cut off the Internet too.
Cloudiot: A person who does not see offsite storage as a way to lose control over access to his or her own data.
The internet browses you.
It'll do the world a favour once Russia realizes they're the fucking third world - they're not a peer, they're not a competitor, they're a backward relic from a bygone era. The US, EU, and China represent the real powers in the globe, with a strong first-world supporting cast of Japan and other countries; a strong second-world with a developing Brazil, India and the Asia Tigers; finally you have those which time is slowly forgetting. Russia clearly fits in to a clearly defined role.
As reported to European media, their population loves the actions their leaders are undertaking to "stick it to the west"; as far as we should be concerned, they can sleep in the bed that Vladimir makes.
Makes you wonder why they bothered fighting WWI at all.
There's no crackdown on WiFi. The quoted rule only applies to publicly-owned free WiFi hotspots: http://slon.ru/fast/russia/pra...
Those luck bastards!
If we wanted to punish them, we'd make JAVA usage manditory. JAVA Desktops for everyone! JAVA ME phones only! and Java Jackpot. Who the hell knows what the point of Jackpot was, but starting now every Mother and child in Russia must figure it out, and use it!
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
Maybe this is a good thing for Russia, they'll have to learn to handle garbage collections and lots of other important programming lessons that java helps you ignore XD
When supporting documents are churned by Putin's propaganda producing press, Russia can do no wrong.
Remember Happy Vlad, that kinder and gentler guy that used to hang around before the Olympics? I miss him. Maybe he'll come back in a few years before the next World Cup.
It would be interesting if this "embargo" lasts any length of time. Given the importance of Java in today's IT world, it would be interesting if our colleagues in St. Petersburg would produce another clean-room implementation of Java. But it'll never happen. All trade embargoes are leaky. Consider, for example, Kim Jong-il, the North Korean un-leader, and the iMac on his desk. That certainly wasn't bought at the local Pyongyang Apple store
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
I don't know why anyone is surprised that Putin and company act like dictatorial thugs. Their nation is imploding and they need to bring out the rod to keep control.
Russia is going through the tyranny playbook chapter by chapter. Demonization and scapegoating of minorities, directly state controlled media spewing nationalistic propaganda, massive corruption and crony control of all major industries, suppression and murderer of political opponents. The list goes on. You name it, they do it. Anything not on the list will happen soon. Things will get worse before they get better.
This is now getting to be an old story in Russia. Something makes me wonder if their culture yearns to be under the boot of monsters and tyrants, because it's been that way for the past few hundred years.
And for the tired, trite "America does it too" blowhards that are already typing up their scathing reply:
Fuck you. Yes. Fuck you, how you think, how you act, what you believe. Fuck everything about you. YOU are the problem. America isn't perfect but your deaf, self serving, wildly out of scale comparisons are poisoning the debate and will frankly will be the end of us all. And not just with Russia. With everything. The Republican party is an out of control monster (Full stop. End of story. No debate. You are a child that does not deserve to participate in adult conversation) and you show up with your limp wristed cynical "Dems do it to so nothing matters!" bullshit and nothing gets done. Fuck you again, for good measure.
Or the fact that it seems most hackers come from Russia. Having to prove identity before accessing the network, would certainly throw a wrench into the Russian hacking game. Sure the hackers will try to find a way around it (and likely will), but it will make it harder.
The fact the one of the largest breaches apparently happened just this week involving apparently Russian hackers again, makes me wonder how biased this article is. It was the first thing I thought of, was government trying to fight illegal hacking activity domestically that has been plaguing the world internationally, and is something they might do to actually improve international relations as it can be seen that they are taking pretty large measures to crack down on the Russian hacking activity. I mean the first thing about stopping hacking is to remove the anonymity or at least reduce or make it more difficult to maintain as it is the hackers best defense.
There are those who have tread under-foot the soft soil of another world.
There are those who could have done so but chose not.
That point of view is only valid is Russia actually does anything about hackers. We'll see. No doubt they will be very concerned about hackers attacking Russian targets, but foreign targets? We'll see.
Is self-serving righteous hypocrites like you. You and your buddies Obama and Bush and the whole criminal lot.
Guy poisons people and goes to prison, what an injustice.
"We will hope that this restrictive tendency stops at some point because soon won't there be anything left to ban."
Hehehe, keep on hoping, that'll fix the lunatic Putin.
Third world with second largest amount of nukes. And chemical and biological weapons. So let's put an embargo on them to increase the misery inside, it will most definitely cool down some heads. People there certainly won't be constantly attacked by nationalist propaganda, blaming other countries for its misery. There certainly won't be any repression of dissidents. We know, because it worked so well on the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, which democraticly always elects the ruling party and the eternal leader.
When faced with poverty, misery and hunger, people tend to follow the one that gives or even only promises bread. And then they rationalize those decisions as just.
where we still have some freedom, Putin is a hacked up, soggy, cheese-curd potato.
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
Ellison and Putin, two peas in a pod.
Table-ized A.I.
Ehm http://www.space.com/26551-us-military-launches-russian-rocket-engines.html
Are you sure Russia is third world? The only I see is that USA are an arrogant world!!
their population loves the actions their leaders
There you go. Mod the parent up.
The parent perhaps goes too far in dismissing Russia's standing in the world since '91; there has been a huge flow of capital from the West into Russia to fund heavy industry beyond the reach of Western regulatory burdens and this has stimulated rapid economic growth and a resurgence in Russian military capability, including new design ICBM deployments.
But the parent is absolutely correct about the Russian people and the leaders they empower. Russians are once again indulging a cult of personality in Putin. I know there are many Russians in IT and geekery that will say I'm all wrong because that's not what they would have, but the fact is that the majority of Russians are thrilled by their bare chested father figure, sop up every morsel of the propaganda they're being fed and have kept him in power long enough to cement his place as Russia's latest autocrat.
Russia; publicly cultivate your masculinity and say bad things about America and you too can install yourself for life.
Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
hahahah
I was just daydreaming about the compelling idea of not being able to update java and not being pestered by the annoying notification on a country scale!
It'll do the world a favour once Russia realizes they're the fucking third world - they're not a peer, they're not a competitor, they're a backward relic from a bygone era. The US, EU, and China represent the real powers in the globe, with a strong first-world supporting cast of Japan and other countries; a strong second-world with a developing Brazil, India and the Asia Tigers; finally you have those which time is slowly forgetting. Russia clearly fits in to a clearly defined role.
As reported to European media, their population loves the actions their leaders are undertaking to "stick it to the west"; as far as we should be concerned, they can sleep in the bed that Vladimir makes.
I've lost some sympathy for the Russian people due to their general backing of Putin's policies.
However, I'm extremely worried for the nations bordering Russia who are full of nice people who would rather not be invaded and turned into the USSR 2.0.
I stole this Sig
A couple of downloads I've tried just now commenced as usual.
Yeah, you're right. Let's hand over the Baltics and Finland to Putin while we're at it. That should satisfiy them. The French can offer their ani.
an ill wind that blows no good
Finally at least one country will stop using such a crap like JAVA. Brian Krebs' long lasting dream. We'll done Oracle.
It appears you have no idea what 1st, 2nd, and 3rd world means. It is a cold war relic that refers to alignment not development. 1st world: USA, UK, etc, 2nd world: USSR and China, and 3rd world was everyone else that didn't pick a side.
horror vacui
That's nice. You take a Political Science course since the Berlin Wall fell? The Three Worlds Theory was great, but arbitrary definitions do change after 30 years of disuse...
Nobody said anything about being a communist. You can infer a jibe about authoritarianism, but any link to communism is wholly part of your own bias.
Also: when has Obama issued a decree cracking down on WiFi usage? I hadn't heard about this.
Insightful.... feh....
Putin has said he thinks the Internet is a CIA project. Though he's wrong (it's a DOD project), he's also a man who's all about that spy stuff. He probably sincerely believes it's in his countries best interest to suppress internet usage, perhaps replacing it with one of their own design.
Considering a Russian gang has stolen over 1 billion user names and password hashes from hundreds of thousands of websites, and considering all such problems of that kind that the world has with Russia hackers, I think the best outcome for the world would be for that country to lose internet access. Their people will suffer as a result, but the more people stand to benefit from their potential isolation.
It's possible that of all possible outcomes, this is the best one.
Russia is banning java....How can I get a visa to move to Russia?
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
I agree that parent might be going too far in dismissing Russia's standing today, but I think you're both somewhat incorrect on the mood of the Russian people. In actuality, there is a lot of disgust and guilt amongst Russians over Ukraine, but a lot of this is suppressed by the need to show support for the government and the reactionaries who do in fact agree with the government. Think about those with cooler heads just after 9/11 who wanted more forethought and calm. The more they spoke out, the more they were branded as sympathizers of the enemy. There is a genuine distrust of the west in Russia. It's not entirely unearned however. See the west through the eyes of a Soviet Russian or a new Russian. Entities like NATO, CIA, and SIS (MI-6) are scary things in much the same way as Warsaw Pact and KGB were to the west. The difference: NATO, CIA, and SIS exist today. NATO has been taking former Warsaw Pact nations as members. This puts the NATO border much closer to Russia. NATO exists for the purpose of fighting Russia (albeit the Soviet era Russia). Russia is not the EU, yet former Soviet satellites and eastern Bloc nations are. This isolates Russia every more. There is an additional language barrier in the cyrillic alphabet without the advantage of western exposure to latinization as there is in Ukraine and the former Yugoslavian nations. There have been several moves by the US in European affairs that have marginalized Russia. All these things are real. But then you have the perceived stuff in the media. Putin has used the media very well to sell the idea that westerners truly hate Russians. It ranges from the same kind of "They hate us for our freedom" simplistic statements that Americans use to explain their enemies to more extreme ideas that are similar anti-semitism.
It's really unfair to blame Russian people as many do (not saying you have). Russians do not have the access that westerners have. The Russians I know, none of whom are techies, just ordinary wage slaves - they can only whisper about how upset they are at the way things have gotten. Americans have to stop assuming that Russians can just pick up a Don't Tread on Me sign and an AR-15 and march through the streets or get an opposition cable news channel with some pundit who will attack the president.It really is a different world.
There is no embargo on Java and similiar technologies. Also the "author" haven't read the Law he mentioned. There's no crackdown on Wi-fi. This is all just about informatioal war that is going on in press and on "freedom space" of internet where every ignoramus person can write an article.
Why do you think that russian will argue that "America does it too"? In Russia most of the people don't care about USA, you are not a center of the universe. Russian people absolutely not giving a fuck about what is happening in your country until US is disturbing our country interests and yes, those interest includes Ukraine also, because Ukraine is the place where russian nation was born. PS Simply try to understand one thing: nobody gives a fuck about your internal US problems, normal people don't compare countries, because simply countries and nations are different and US is just one of them. There is nothing special about US.
run anywhere.
Unless you have the wrong Java version. Or it turns out to be not quite as portable as promised. Or there is an issue with security settings. Or you are in Russia.
What a long copout. Of course you can't march in the streets, until you Dom. Newsflash: rights weren't given to USA and EU citizens. Bloody revolutions were fought. Russia people chose, and still choose, a different way. Stop assuming they're (big plural) not responsible for their condition. Sure, Joseph Smithcovich isn't responsible personally. But it is the responsibility of the Russian people to change their own government or, while embracing it, becoming members of a pariah failed state.
Russia; publicly cultivate your masculinity and say bad things about America and you too can install yourself for life.
So... In post-Soviet Russia, you install YOU !?
Not all Russians support Putin, you know. The majority do, but there's always the minority - and they are, in fact, the first ones do be targeted; nations bordering Russia would only be second.
"Fifth column" and "national traitor" are already the words of the day ever since Putin used them in his presidential address.
Small geopolitical vocab lesson for ya:
First World/Second World/Third World do not represent a decreasing scale of quality of life in a country. Countries do not transition from third to second to first or vice versa.
During the Cold War, First World was used to designate NATO and Western-aligned countries. Second World covered Warsaw Pact and Soviet ones. Third World was everyone else.
That's it: a delineation of the world into three sub worlds based on the political leanings of the day. It just so happened that the non-affiliated (aka Third Worlders) tended to all be backwater shit holes, for the most part, and so the term stuck :)
And Obama? How many stupid American pet whites got a thrill from showing how "enlightened" they were by voting for him *just because he was black*?
...as much as I despise USA majority for having elected the likes of Bush, Jr. (hello?). But then -- look at Cameron, Merkel &c.
Gaah.
my grammar can beat up your grammar
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
The Russians embargo Polish apples. Does this mean there will be no apples in the stores in Moscow? No it means the Russians will buy their apples from some place else. New Zealand is not shipping apples to Russia but Chile has a large supply of apples that are similar or better than the apples from Poland. Poland will have a balance of payment situation with Russia that will worsen because of Russias actions. Russia buys apples from Poland to help Poland pay for the natural gas they buy fron Russian companies. Apples from Chile that used to go other places will end up in Russia and apples from Poland will replace the apples that used to come from Chile. Net result is consumers pay more and apples get shipped to different places that are less economicly advantages. The economy in the EU is in tuff shape and this will not help. Nobody wins everyone loses but Poland loses most of all.
I am a former American citizen who married a Russian woman, had children, and relocated permanently to St. Petersburg, Russia. This is absolutely not the "third world", in the sense that I've always understood it. I have much better internet, cable TV, mobile phone, and house phone service here than I could ever hope for in the States. That's not true in the countryside though. A lot of things don't meet Western standards generally, but a lot of it is the relatively short time period the country has had to rebuild and has done so almost without foreign help (as opposed to East Germany as an example). New construction is to Western standards - houses, roads, etc.; salaries are comparatively lower for similar work, but they have steadily risen and most people can afford some luxuries in their life like iphones. And by "most people" I mean full-time cashiers at a grocery store, normal people. I think you would be shocked at the disconnection between the coverage of English-language Western media on the situation and local (Russian) media and opinions, and even non-English European coverage, like Der Zeit. The problem is partly that the American media think Pravda is still the authoritative voice of the Russian government, so they don't bother translating anything else - but Pravda was privated after the fall and today is sort of a mix between The Sun and The Onion, not official position. And wifi worked at Appleby's today - the restaurant was really busy, the weather is beautiful and the town is full of tourists.
I would like to know why US supports Israel bombing civilian targets and killing children with the excuse that 1 or 2 of them may be hit with a unguided rocket, and then condems Russia for using a better excuse to attack a army.
But i guess most US ppl value 1 european as equal to 100 arabs..
There are more woman and children casualtys per day in Palestinia then soldiers in Ucrain.
There is no threat to border nations. Georgia, for example, attacked their provinces, and Russia used the fact that in USSR these provinces were not part of Georgia.
Ukraine started to attack Russian-oriented population and Russia used the fact that in USSR (and before that) Crimea was part of Russia. Otherwise not only the East of Ukraine, but also the Crimea would burn now.
Who else? Finland. A former province of Russia. Member of EU and important trade partner of Russia. They had war in 1939, when USSR demanded exchange of territories - they wanted to have more land between the border and St.Petersburn (then Leningrad). Finland refused, and this ended up with terrible war. Russians got what they wanted, and paid a price that allowed them to withstand Hitler's attack. Later, Spanish friends of Hitler blockaded St. Petersburg causing hundreds of thousands of people to die of starvation, but they would have a better chance if Russians wouldn't have that war before.
Finland still remembers that war and some unstable Finnish boneheads still hate Russia for it. However, there are no tensions between two countries and I can't imagine them to have a military conflict.
Unlike the Norway, which is more aggressive towards Russia, due to economical tensions. They had no military conflicts before and I don't think they might.
Sweden. They had around 10 wars with Russia, and lost most of them. These wars gave Russia access to the Baltic Sea, territories of current Estonia and Latvia. A military conflict with Sweden? Good joke. Neither nation has anything against each other, and Russians have no claims for any part of the territory of Sweden.
Estonia and Latvia. These two didn't exist before the USSR. In fact, Latvia was part of Russia for around 300 years. They never had nobility (dukes, princes, whatever) and even their language was first formalized in 19th century by Latvians who studied in St. Petersburg. Without Latvians, communism wouldn't win in Russia after the Great War, as Latvians were the main power of Lenin. So, that was a genuine part of Russian Empire and this worries Latvians. They have a territory dispute with Russia over the territory that was never part of Latvia but was promised by Lenin. If Latvia wouldn't be part of EU and Nato, they, IMHO, could be in some danger, especially taking into account that large part of population (more than half in capital) are ethnic Russians.
Lithuania and Poland - these were one country once, a strong enemy of Russia. They even burned down Moscow once. They helped Mongols to bully Russia until 1480. Ukraine didn't exist at that time, as a country. Russians and Polish have interesting relations - Polish are whining about bad Russians and Russians are picking on Polish. They don't trust each other. But there is no way in hell Russia would attack Poland, no matter what they did to each other in the past (and these were nastiest things, with Polish killing whole cities during Russian-Swedish wars, or Russians shooting thousands of Polish soldiers before the WW2 (for Russia it started in 1941, when Hitler betrayed them).
Both Poland and Lithuania eventually became parts of Russian Empire, but were not converted - there are nearly no Russians, they are catholic, and there is no Russian influence. Poland and Lithuania are the most annoying neighbors of Russia, as they are whining all the time about everything and spill poison in every word they are saying officially about Russia. That's a problem for EU, as Germany and France, main players of EU, are way more friendly towards Russia.
Ukraine... It wasn't a country for a long time. Kiev, their capital, is the first capital of Rus(sia). Ukraine consists of East and West, where West is the part that was Poland before, and East - that was Russian Empire. East and West have different opinions about many things, and supported different sides in WW2 - West was for Hitler and East was for Stalin. Russians generally don't like Ukrainians, although the ethic bond between two nations is very strong.
I really like what Putin is doing - hope he will through the US w out of Ukraine..
This might be a little tin hat, but does this define java as a military weapon on the cyber warfare front?
According to the treasury department Russia is not on the embargoed countries list [1]. An the OFAC Sactions List Search [2], nowhere does it come up with wide ranging sanctions on the country; only individuals and corporations are named. If we look at the sactions wiki [5], Russia is not named there either. Now perhaps these have yet to be updated. I'll conceed that. Wikipedia has a list of embargoed items, USML (United States Munitions List) [6]. But nowhere are cyber weapons found.
Now Let's look at Java. In 2014 Cisco's Annual Security Report, they (cisco) blames Java for 90% of the secuirty attacks [3]. This is pretty common knowledge. And we also know that Microsoft gives the feds zero-day exploits before they're patched. I do not believe this is too much of a stretch to say that other large companies do this as well. There are many exploits that could be had without properly patched Java implementations, leaving a vast population of Russia at risk from foreign attacks. Perhaps not the tech savvy, but the average user would be at risk to attacks. Now no other company thus far has come forward and witheld product updates to Russia. This doesn't seem like a wise move on Oracle's part. Perhaps they too send pre-patched updates to nation-states and large companies to look out for known exploits, perhaps pro-bono, perhaps for a fee. If so this would be an asset for cyber warfare.
Is it too far fetched to say that this makes Oracle a beacon for attacks for witholding updates and prouducts? Is it too far fetched to think that the US gov asked Oracle to do this since it would be in their (the gov) to keep using known exploits in their arsenal of cyber attacks? Is this redefinition of Oracle's Java as a cyber weapon; holding users' attack vectors at risk for state sponsered attacks?
What do you think? (too tin-hat?)
[1] http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Programs/Pages/Programs.aspx
[2] https://sdnsearch.ofac.treas.gov/
[3] http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2014/01/20/cisco_java_exploits_behind_90_percent_of_security_attacks
[4] https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130614/02110223467/microsoft-said-to-give-zero-day-exploits-to-us-government-before-it-patches-them.shtml
[5] http://www.sanctionswiki.org/US_Embargoed_Countries
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Munitions_List