<nettime> FC: KGB successor reads Russian Internet traffic, from Moscow Times

[mediafilter <mf@mediafilter.org>]

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[This has been forwarded around a few times; extraneous info snipped.
Something to think about as the IETF discusses a draft policy statement
regarding wiretapping, and we debate NSA surveillance in the US. --DBM]

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#12
Moscow Times
December 7, 1999
FSB Now Wired to Read Your E-Mail
By Jen Tracy
Staff Writer

Critics and fans of the security services agree: Internet service
providers across Russia are helping the main KGB successor agencies
to read private e-mails and other Internet traffic, as part of an
ambitious internal espionage program called SORM-2.

"SORM implementation is in full force and I suspect that all
[Internet service] providers have at least begun the process and many
have completed it," said Yury Vdovin, vice chairman of the St.
Petersburg-based Citizens' Watch human rights group.

"None of the providers will talk about it, though," Vdovin added.
"They are all afraid."

"All providers are gradually starting to implement SORM, because
their licenses will be revoked if they don't," agreed Yelena
Volchinskaya, a consultant for the State Duma Security Council and
author of the recent book "Internet and Glasnost." Unlike Vdovin, she
supports the SORM-2 project as a valuable crime-fighting tool.

SORM--which stands for Sistema Operativno-Rozysknykh Meropriyatii, or
System for Operational-Investigative Activities--was first born in a
1995 government regulation that gave the security services the right
to monitor all telecommunications transmissions, provided they first
obtained a warrant.

SORM-2 was an additional regulation issued in July 1998 by the
Federal Security Service, or FSB, and by the State Communications
Committee. It mandated that Internet service providers install, at
their own expense, technology to link their computers to those at FSB
headquarters--allowing the agency to monitor select electronic
transmissions, from private e-mails to e-commerce purchases, in real
time.

The costs to the Internet service provider are estimated from $10,000
to $30,000, not including any future upgrades. That's enough to shut
down some smaller providers, and some SORM-watchers argue that the
big Internet players actually welcome SORM as it helps them shore up
their market-shares.

[...]

Citizens' Watch says St. Petersburg's Web Plus--an Internet service
provider owned by Telekominvest--has installed SORM-2 equipment,
making it possible for the local FSB to receive transmissions of
their choice in real time. No one was available to comment at Web
Plus.

On Nov. 12, the State Communications Committee--co-author of
SORM-2--was renamed the Communications Ministry. Five days later,
newly appointed Communications Minister Leonid Reiman hit the podium
with a call for stricter Internet controls. He did not specifically
mention SORM.

[...]




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