President Vladimir Putin holds
the Olympic flame in Moscow's Red
Square: The former KGB officer
is looking to top the NSA in terms
of surveillance at the
Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Sochi 2014: Russia to Take Gold in Spying on Athletes and Fans (YezhednevniyZhurnal, Russia)
"Many foreigners, who won't use Russian servers, likely
hope that their data will be protected by modern encryption methods of Western companies. In fact, this will provide few advantages. In March, the Communications
Ministry published a draft order that introduces new regulations for ISPs.
Under these rules, Western services have to follow the same guidelines as
mail.ru and yandex.ru concerning interception. ... Controls are not just limited
to communications. For the first time, drones will be used to observe Olympic
events. ... Foreign citizens, for a period of a couple of weeks while at the
Olympic Games, will be in the same situation that Russians have experienced
every day for many years."
With the strictest surveillance ever devised for an Olympic Games and controversy swirling around issues like Russia's draconian 'homosexual propaganda' law, the 2014 Winter Olympics are almost guaranteed to see protesting foreigners caught up in Russia's legal system.
The
Olympic Games in Sochi could put Russia in first place in the competition to spy
on athletes and fans. Organizers of the previous games in Beijing and London put
great effort into security for stadiums and the surrounding areas. However in
Sochi, Russian authorities have adopted a comprehensive approach, which combines
the most advanced technologies in the fields of interception and surveillance,
along with administrative controls often used during the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
The
first suspicion that Big Brother
is watching comes the moment you register on the official Sochi 2014 Web site to obtain a “supporter’s
passport.” All visitors aged two or older must register for one, regardless of
their country of origin. When you attempt to take a photo of yourself, which is
required for registration, your computer warns, “https://pass.sochi2014.com is
requesting access to your camera and microphone. If you press ‘accept,’ you
will be registered.” The data that visitors are obliged to give will be forwarded
to the FSB to be checked.
What will happen
at the Olympics?
The
key role of providing security at the Olympics was in 2010 given to FSB counterintelligence
chief Oleg
Syromolotovback, who will lead the Olympics operations
staff. Syromolotov has little experience in the fight
against terrorism, having spent most of his career chasing spies. Evidently,
Olympic organizers have decided that the main threat comes not from [Chechen] militants
or their leader, DokkaUmarov - who has called
for a resumption of terrorist attacks during the Games, but from foreign
intelligence agencies.
In
a presentation on Sochi Olympics data security commissioned by the FSB in 2010,
alongside measures to stop cyber threats, special attention is paid to the modernization
of SORM
(System for Operative Intelligence Activities) - Russia's system of technology
for the lawful interception of all forms of communications.
From
the presentation, one can conclude that the “old” SORM
network has been greatly improved and expanded for Sochi, “taking into account the elevated
threat to Olympics participants and guests.” By strengthening SORM, the FSB and other intelligence services have made it easier,
not only to intercept conversations on cell phones and exchanges via e-mail,
but any information that Internet users send to one another on social networks,
messenger services, chat rooms, etc.
Local
providers are required to meet government demands for “wiretapping,” provide
SORM with “black boxes” at their own expense, are
subject to checks by Roscomnadzor (Federal Service for Supervision of
Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media), and several have been
fined. For example, Sochi-Online has been fined 3000 roubles
($100) for failing to install Omega, a special type of software, and instead providing
SORM access though another company.
In
June, national operator Rostelecom installed the latest 4G LTE
network in Sochi, promising the fasted Internet access in the history of the
Games, as well as the cheapest WiFi.
However,
at about the same time, according to the company’s documents, RosTelecom began installing DPI (deep packet inspection)
technology on mobile phone networks in the region. This technology makes it
possible not only to monitor all Internet traffic, but also to filter it,
making it possible to find the right information using key words. DPI is also effective
in helping identify users. Experts have explained that combining SORM and DPI technology will make it possible to pinpoint
users who, for example, visit protest group Web sites, then intercept all of
their messages.
Many
foreigners, who won't use Russian servers, likely hope that their data will be
protected by modern encryption methods of Western companies. In fact, this
will provide few advantages. In March, the Communications Ministry published a draft
order that introduces new SORM regulations for ISPs.
Under these rules, Western services like G-mail and Yahoo have to follow the
same guidelines as mail.ru and yandex.ru concerning interception. The draft
order has yet to be signed, but the tendency is clear.
Controls
are not limited to communications. For the first time, drones will be used
to observe Olympic events. Two government agencies, the FSB and the Krasondar Region Ministry of Internal Affairs Border
Control - have bought Zala 421 drones and an unmanned Horizon Air S-100
system especially for the Games. At the last Olympic Games in London as well, the
use of drones was planned, but organizers were unable to obtain authorization
to use them above the city.
A
special system of video surveillance has been installed for the Sochi Olympics comprising
over 5,500 digital cameras, the images from which will be fed to a situation room
equipped with the most advanced Israeli technology. In addition, the Defense Ministry
has purchased two sonar systems for detecting submarines in order to defend the
Sochi coast against attack from the sea.
Last
week, FSB spokesman AlekseiLavrishev,
at a press conference dedicated to Olympics issues, promised that security
measures would not be obtrusive. On this he is likely quite right; modern
surveillance technologies work discreetly.
Beyond Sochi
2014
Foreign
citizens, for a period of a couple of weeks while at the Olympic Games, will be
in the same situation that Russians have experienced every day for many years. The
SORM system is opaque and inaccessible to outside monitoring.
However, the available information on the subject raises serious concerns that the
Russian secret services are crossing lines and invading the privacy of
citizens.
Statistics
from the Legal Department of the Supreme Court show that over the past six
years, the lawful interception of phone calls and e-mails of Russian citizens has
doubled (excluding wiretapping carried out under the rubric of counter-intelligence).
According
to this data, in 2012, Russian courts granted law enforcement permission to intercept
and record telephone conversations and messages sent by “electronic and postal
communications,” i.e. e-mail 539, 864 times. In 2007, permission was granted only
265,937 times. Furthermore, in September 201, the incumbent Internal Affairs minister, Rashid
Nurgaliev, reported that for the past six years,
crime has dropped, and the number of criminal cases has correspondingly fallen.
In such a situation, it is not clear how and under what pretext the
intelligence services have managed to achieve such growth in the number of “wiretaps.”
A
partial explanation may lie in the fact that it isn't only the FSB that can violate
the privacy of e-mails and communications. In Russia, there are eight agencies authorized
to carry out search and monitoring activities, and hence can surveil of citizens and secretly intercept their data.
These are the Ministry of Internal Affairs, FSB (Federal Security Service), the
FSO (Federal Protective Service), the SVR (Foreign Intelligence Service), Customs, the Federal
Drug Control Service, the Federal Penitentiary Service, and the Ministry of
Defense.
What's
the difference between surveillance in Russia and surveillance in the West? In
the U.S. and Western Europe, law enforcement mush obtain a court order and send
it to the operator, who downloads the information and sends it back to the
secret services. In Russia, an FSB officer must also obtain permission from a
court, but the operator has no right to know which conversation or messages are
being intercepted. So the technicalities of the systems are different: the FSB
has at its disposal a SORM control panel connected to
the secure server of the operator. In order to tap intercept a conversation, an
intelligence operative need only enter commands into the SORM
control panel, which is located inside the local FSB office. This system is replicated
across the country, and in every regional center, the local FSB office is
connected via cable to regional operators.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
There
are no mechanism for public or Parliamentary oversight of secret service
surveillance activities on citizens, and the courts often mechanically approve
requests received from law enforcement. For example, in November last year, the
Russian Supreme Court upheld the right of the intelligence services to listen to
conversations by government opponents solely on the basis that they were
carrying out protest activity. Two years earlier, in the Sverdlovskii
region, the FSB received permission from a local court to tap Duma Member MaksimPetlin of Yekaterinburg City, who was an active member of “Solidarnost,” a movement critical of the FSB. Petlin filed an appeal, but the Supreme Court upheld the
surveillance and interception of his communications.
*Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan are experts
on the Russian security services. In compiling this report, they collated open
source technical documents published on the Zakupki
government procurement agency Web site, as well as public records of government
oversight agencies.
