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Russian Bill Requires Encryption Backdoors In All Messenger Apps (dailydot.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the privacy-vs-security dept.

Patrick O'Neill quotes a report from The Daily Dot: A new bill in the Russian Duma, the country's lower legislative house, proposes to make cryptographic backdoors mandatory in all messaging apps in the country so the Federal Security Service -- the successor to the KGB -- can obtain special access to all communications within the country. [Apps like WhatsApp, Viber, and Telegram, all of which offer varying levels of encrypted security for messages, are specifically targeted in the "anti-terrorism" bill, according to the Russian-language media. Fines for the offending companies could reach 1 million rubles or about $15,000.] Russian Senator Elena Mizulina argued that the new bill ought to become law because, she said, teens are brainwashed in closed groups on the internet to murder police officers, a practice protected by encryption. Mizulina then went further. "Maybe we should revisit the idea of pre-filtering [messages]," she said. "We cannot look silently on this."

4 of 207 comments (clear)

  1. Oh, the irony! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Oh dear, this is ironic. Russia is a haven for online criminals, something they really ought to crack down on. Instead of pursuing actual criminals, they're looking to reduce the privacy of people who haven't done anything wrong. What a screwed up country!

    1. Re: Oh, the irony! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      My god you people are fucking stupid. Your hate of the US is so strong you refuse to acknowledge reality. Yes, the US engages in mass surveillance. So do the EU and Australia. Edward Snowden talked about the fourteen eyes, which includes much of the EU. In fact, EU countries that are left out of these surveillance pacts want in very much. There is one huge difference, though, between the fourteen eyes and Russia. The fourteen eyes aren't actively cracking down on human rights and political dissidents. I'm free to criticize Obama heavily without fear of government retribution. Canadian, Australian, and EU citizens enjoy the same freedoms with their respective governments. Russia, however, does not tolerate criticism of its government nearly as much. Speak out against Putin there and see what happens; it won't turn out well for you. Expressions of homosexuality are also heavily restricted and Russia has a horrible record of LGBT rights. So many people here are blinded by their hatred of the US that they're willing to praise a country with Russia's record for admitting their mass surveillance. This is part of why Slashdot is fucking unreadable these days. There is absolutely no way we should be praising Russia at all for this.

  2. Stop providing services by Corwyn_123 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    To any country that makes encryption either illegal, or treats it as eminent domain for the government to have access to it's citizen's communications.

    This is the same crap the UK is proposing, and the same crap the US is trying to implement. It's time for the citizens, and thereby the private services providers, to stand up and say "No More!!!".

  3. Opposing country's bills by MobyDisk · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Russian bill: All messaging apps must have a backdoor that only Russia can access.
    US bill: All messaging apps must have a backdoor that only the US can access.
    EU bill: All messaging apps must have a backdoor that only the EU can access.

    Yeah, that'll work just great.