How the created database can be used by special services
The FSB intends to create a database of encryption keys from instant messengers. It will allow security officials to quickly access private messages. This idea was supported by “foreign partners,” Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov said in an interview with RIA Novosti. And for the first time, the head of the FSB Alexander Bortnikov made a proposal to create a unified system back in 2018, in the midst of a confrontation with the Telegram messenger. Does this mean renewed conflict? And how will encryption keys help the FSB?
Luka Safonov, General Director of Cyberpoligon, answered these questions.
“Probably, this is some kind of state“ Big Brother ”that they want to implement. In principle, this initiative has been wandering on the sidelines of power for several years. The issue is that its implementation is contrary to the fundamental principles of encryption. If our final client-to-client encryption is carried out, for example, as in Telegram, then it is impossible to embed a third party there, because this destroys the very principle of an encrypted channel.
We know how our data is disposed of, everything is constantly leaking somewhere, leaking, data being stolen, and so on.
But with regard to the issue of security, including as a result of the latest tragic events, I do not think that this measure will provide an opportunity to promptly monitor the situation and check the veracity of the information, ”says Luka Safonov.
The shooter in Kazan made his channel public 15 minutes before the attack on the school. The incident could hardly have been prevented by monitoring Telegram channels.
The authorities refused to block the messenger in June 2020. Roskomnadzor explained this by “the readiness of the messenger to counter terrorism and extremism.” It was not about transferring encryption keys. Pavel Durov then stated that his company had managed to keep the correspondence secret. At the same time, the service has developed mechanisms that “make it possible to prevent terrorist attacks around the world.”
If the security forces have made peace with Telegram, this does not mean that other services have succeeded, Igor Bederov, the founder of the Internet-Search company, is sure. According to him, the FSB has been collecting encryption keys over the past years.
“Any local FSB unit, even a regional one, is already assembling similar bases.
These are local messengers, services, databases of public IP addresses and encryption keys. The central apparatus is trying to do the same at the federal level with varying degrees of success. We, of course, can say that the work is being carried out, but how effectively it is happening, we are already told by the statistics of the active growth of crimes with the use of modern technologies, ”explains Igor Bederov.
In 2019, the FSB demanded that Yandex provide encryption keys, RBC reported. Later, the company itself reported that a solution had been found. But they did not specify which one exactly.
Ivan Koryakin
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