Russia successfully disconnected its homegrown RuNet from the Internet

[nanoguy]

Through the looking glass: For Russian President Vladimir Putin, the "free internet" and "sovereign internet" concepts aren't mutually exclusive. The country recently performed several successful tests that simulated how it would respond in case of a foreign cyber attack.

News broke in February that Russia was planning to disconnect itself from the Internet to see what would happen in case of foreign aggression. To that end, the Russian government had to pass a law requiring internet service providers to make it possible to inspect all outbound traffic and maintain an isolated intranet dubbed RuNet if necessary.

This week, the country performed a series of unprecedented tests to simulate the conditions of a foreign cyber attack and its ability to keep its internal infrastructure operational while blocking all inbound and outbound traffic. The tests started last week and involved state-run institutions, as well as telecom providers and internet companies.

Deputy communications minister Alexei Sokolov told reporters "it turned out that, in general, that both authorities and telecom operators are ready to effectively respond to possible risks and threats and ensure the functioning of the Internet and the unified telecommunication network in Russia."

Russia sees the creation of a "sovereign internet" as a necessary move in the context of ever-increasing social media influence and cyber attacks. Not much is known about the specifics of the tests, but a total of 18 attack scenarios were simulated to determine if federal and commercial telecom operators can effectively separate Russia from the Internet while still allowing access to local services using a DNS cache.

While country officials may present these efforts as purely defensive in nature, it's not hard to imagine they could be used as an excuse for different motives. Some speculate that Russia wants to tighten surveillance and censorship in a similar fashion to China, on top of requiring all smartphones to come with Russian software pre-installed.

The results will be presented to President Vladimir Putin next year, and the RuNet system is supposed to become fully operational in 2021.

In related news, the Russian government is planning to invest $31 million to create its own Wikipedia.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/83314-russia-successfully-disconnected-homegrown-runet-internet.html

 

[Damocles]

Sounds like a typical devious Putin scheme to just chop Russia off the world net, full stop, with their own censored and government-controlled version in the wings. Control, control, control is the name of the game. Going the same way as China, methinks. To use an age-old hackneyed phrase - I wouldn't trust that guy as far as I could throw him. The whole idea of the net was to be open and free but that concept seems to be gradually going out of the window, with various governments dreaming up ideas to limit it all, one way or another, under varying pretexts, such as national security. That is nothing more than waffle. Give it a few more years and I shall be extremely surprised if anything remotely resembling our current net is still in existence. The whole thing will be totally censored and tightly regulated.

 

[wiyosaya]

Is this a scene from that old Star Wars game, "Dark Forces?" No wait. This is the real world edging more and more toward totalitarian control.

 

[EClyde]

Sounds like a typical devious Putin scheme to just chop Russia off the world net, full stop, with their own censored and government-controlled version in the wings. Control, control, control is the name of the game. Going the same way as China, methinks. To use an age-old hackneyed phrase - I wouldn't trust that guy as far as I could throw him. The whole idea of the net was to be open and free but that concept seems to be gradually going out of the window, with various governments dreaming up ideas to limit it all, one way or another, under varying pretexts, such as national security. That is nothing more than waffle. Give it a few more years and I shall be extremely surprised if anything remotely resembling our current net is still in existence. The whole thing will be totally censored and tightly regulated.

What makes you think our (US) internet is not "controlled"

 

[EClyde]

Is this a scene from that old Star Wars game, "Dark Forces?" No wait. This is the real world edging more and more toward totalitarian control.

Edging? We are hurtling esp in the US. Canada and England are already there

 

[yRaz]

What makes you think our (US) internet is not "controlled"

Because I can still argue with strangers from many different countries

 

[noel24]

Trump, Putin, Erdogan, Orban and Kaczyński are neo-nazi dickheads, and If You read this post It means We still have more or less open Internet. Unless, I'm arrested tommorow...

 

[scavengerspc]

Edging? We are hurtling esp in the US. Canada and England are already there

No. Just.....Wrong
I love my Country, but more and more I hate my fellow Countrymen.

 

[Mr Majestyk]

Trump would give his left nut to have Putin's unfettered power and have his own turdnet or as we call it reality distortion field.

 

[EClyde]

Because I can still argue with strangers from many different countries

Well then I will call you a adkfafaflkadfkadfkSDLKsdlgfvSD and see if it doesn't get censored. Or, I can try and have a conversation about race and it gets censored, etc. All sites, except a very few, censor to fit the current PC

 

[EClyde]

No. Just.....Wrong
I love my Country, but more and more I hate my fellow Countrymen.

Oh Stop....you sound like 60's...I may not agree but will defend your right to say.....I say your comment is baloney. BTW hate is not a good thing

 

[VitalyT]

Trump, Putin, Erdogan, Orban and Kaczyński are neo-nazi dickheads, and If You read this post It means We still have more or less open Internet. Unless, I'm arrested tommorow...

Are you still here? Just checking...

 

[scavengerspc]

Oh Stop....you sound like 60's...I may not agree but will defend your right to say.....I say your comment is baloney. BTW hate is not a good thing

Hate is a very good thing when discussing American CONServatives.
And America as intended by its founders never goes out of style.

 

[yRaz]

Well then I will call you a adkfafaflkadfkadfkSDLKsdlgfvSD and see if it doesn't get censored. Or, I can try and have a conversation about race and it gets censored, etc. All sites, except a very few, censor to fit the current PC

Go to 4chan if you don't want to be censored. Privately run sites censoring content has nothing to do with US regulation. We agreed to techspot's terms of service when we signed up and thus agreed to their runs as they are providing a service to us for free

 

[psycros]

Hate is a very good thing when discussing American CONServatives.
And America as intended by its founders never goes out of style.

Well, since you didn't apply equal venom to the "libtards" I can only assume you ARE one. Maybe you didn't get the memo from the DNC saying that the Founders were all racist, homophobic, slave-mongering conservatives - its been their party line for the past decade, after all. Maybe you need to rethink which side of the aisle you support.

 

[wiyosaya]

Well, since you didn't apply equal venom to the "libtards" I can only assume you ARE one. Maybe you didn't get the memo from the DNC saying that the Founders were all racist, homophobic, slave-mongering conservatives - its been their party line for the past decade, after all. Maybe you need to rethink which side of the aisle you support.

I guess it will take a few more months of mounting unemployment claims to see which side is really driving the country into the ground - not that I think hate mongering is a good thing for any side.

 

[mailpup]

Back on topic please.

 

[dogofwars]

Useful for a hit and run. You attack first and then you turn off the internet. I guess they know a thing or two about flaw.

 

[GeforcerFX]

Unless you disable cell phone networks as part of the security side of things it won't stop Western or Chinese attacks form being able to be executed. Since Russia geographically borders Western NATO countries and there really isn't a easy way to stop your radio waves from crossing over they can still gain access through there me thinks.

 

[Burty117]

On serious note, This is a step backwards for the Internet as a whole and is a real shame they're going to such extreme lengths.

On a slightly less serious note, If this means I won't have to play with Russians on games like Heroes of the Storm, I'm all for it!

 

[Danny101]

Well, not everything was meant to be connected to the internet: infracture, medical, security, military, and energy. We did have computers prior to the internet. I had computers through the 80's, 90's, until 1999 before browse any websites. It really wasn't much more than bulletin boards then. I was still tuned in to tech, building and upgrading computers, all without the internet. I go to electronic expos. I really miss that. Mueller Upgrading and Repair Editions. Granted, it's easier to get the information at the click of a button rather than going to libraries, bookstores, expos, and conventions. It could be said that it was more socialble than it is now.

 

[OortCloud]

Edging? We are hurtling esp in the US. Canada and England are already there

Suggesting that England and Canada are totalitarian states just shows a massive lack of real knowledge about the world outside your borders. A ludicrous thing to say.

 

[Consolecollector]

Sounds like a typical devious Putin scheme to just chop Russia off the world net, full stop, with their own censored and government-controlled version in the wings. Control, control, control is the name of the game. Going the same way as China, methinks. To use an age-old hackneyed phrase - I wouldn't trust that guy as far as I could throw him. The whole idea of the net was to be open and free but that concept seems to be gradually going out of the window, with various governments dreaming up ideas to limit it all, one way or another, under varying pretexts, such as national security. That is nothing more than waffle. Give it a few more years and I shall be extremely surprised if anything remotely resembling our current net is still in existence. The whole thing will be totally censored and tightly regulated.

more tightly regulated than a preacher's virgin daughter on prom night