Russian civil servants love Skype, the online service they can maintain contact with distant colleagues without having to spend hours flying around the country. But now the FSB wants to banish the service from the agency - to "protect state secrets." That American state protectors the Internet is not quite feel uncomfortable, since hundreds of thousands of American secret documents published online WikiLeaks is close.But now they fear apparently also in the camp of the former class enemy, secrets, of which unauthorized persons had better learn anything that could be leaked to the investigative platform. The Russian FSB (Federal Well Sluschba Besopasnosti, Federal Agency for Security of the Russian Federation) Russia wants to ban state employees to use the Internet calling service Skype.
For Skype you can talk or chat partners send files - and sees the FSB a significant security risk. should have such an "analysis of FSB organs" significant "Systematic risks to information security of state institutions" brought to light. The Moscow newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta also cited an internal letter from the administration of the Sverdlovsk region, a region 2000 km east of Moscow.
It calls for the regional government to prohibit state employees not only the use of Skype, but also the "use of free e-mail services" - ie Gmail & Co. The establishment of a wireless network, a wireless, in government buildings of the Sverdlovsk region, was prevented due to security concerns.
The fear of FSB and the authorities against data leaks does have a real background. Time and again, passed in Russia explosive documents to the media and bloggers. For example, reported the Russian business lawyer and blogger Alexei Nawalnij in November on corruption and embezzlement of up to four billion dollars in state-owned pipeline operator Transneft - and published on his blog secret documents of the Russian Court.
Unlike in China, Russia's state power previously used a fairly liberal Internet policy. Although control of the Kremlin and oligarchs, he devoted all major television channels and the major newspapers of the country. The Web however, is Russian bloggers as the "last free territory". A Skype ban nevertheless stands in sharp contrast to the efforts of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
Medvedev, 45, is a declared Internet fan, occasionally blogging and twittering. The President looks in the information technology a "key to the development of democracy" and calls ever by his government and the authorities' openness at all levels ". How far this will go, however, especially on the Web that is controversial within the Russian power elite.
Medvedev's own administration chief Sergei Naryshkin specially convened a meeting in 2010, because attacking an author of the respected news Web site Gazeta. Ru ", Putin and Medvedev had. The journalist had been indignant that the motorcades of politicians blocked the traffic. For a long time does the FSB to force Internet providers to block unpopular pages.
A law requires Internet service providers to install hardware at its own expense, by the FSB - can track who visits which Web pages and writing the emails - after approval by a judge. Is the real reason someone else? Some companies exercise sometimes even in a voluntary self-censorship.
Shall close the company Scartel meantime, the portal of the Kremlin opponent and former world chess champion Garry Kasparov. However budge even use resistance among Russian officials who regularly Skype for video conferencing with distant colleagues. Also questionable whether a Skype and free e-mail ban would in fact likely to prevent the outflow of confidential information: Russian bloggers point out that there were in the age of USB flash drives and the Internet "1000 ways to share information." What matters is only the will.
Oleg Kozyrev, one of the most famous blogger suggested, therefore, in reality, the thrust of the FSB have a different goal. "Our secret services like Skype, especially if only because you can listen to the program extremely difficult."
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