After the latest NSA surveillance revelations a Russian MP has suggested to the government to immediately limit civil servants’ access to the popular US internet services and social networks.
Lower House deputy Ilya Kostunov sent letters to Deputy PM Dmitry
Rogozin (who oversees the Russian defense industry sector), the
heads of the Defense Ministry, Federal Security Service and the
Communications Ministry with a request to make official
recommendation on usage of the popular US internet services such
as Gmail and Facebook and sometimes also hardware devices
produced by US companies.
The politician told Izvestia daily that the instructions should
be made part of the civil servants’ contracts “so that they
understood that by sending information through US services they
not only fill up the dossiers on themselves and their
organizations but can provide aid to a foreign state or
organization that are engaged in anti-Russian activities”.
“This falls under article 275 of the Russian Criminal Code as
this is high treason,” he added.
Persons convicted under this article face up to 20 years in
prison.
The MP told reporters that in the letter he reminded ministers
and state officials about the scandal involving the US National Security Agency
and its classified program PRISM that collects and analyses data
on the Internet. According to the newspapers that broke the story
the US special services have direct access to the servers of such
companies as Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, Skype,
AOL and others.
“Certainly, the heads of United States intelligence assured
that they were strictly observing the law and protected US
citizens’ right for privacy. But as far as foreign citizens such
as Russians are concerned they and other intelligence services
from NATO countries have no limitations at all” Kostunov
explained. According to the MP, foreigners were not only studying
the electronic correspondence but also remotely used microphones
and video cameras to learn more about the civil servants’
movement, habits, contacts and behavior.
Besides, careless handling of classified information by using
free and popular internet services can lead to it falling into
the hands of independent hackers, Kostunov warned.
The politician suggested the introduction of obligatory
encryption for all information transferred via the internet.
Experts and public figures agreed that proper regulation is
necessary. Even the chairman of the unregistered Pirate Party of
Russia said that using personal accounts of free services for
official state correspondence was “totally unacceptable”.
An internet presence once became a fashion among Russian
officials, especially during the presidency of Dmitry Medvedev
who presents himself as a keen supporter of hi-tech and the
newest digital trends. At the same time, this tendency recently
started to fade. For example Deputy PM Rogozin, whose tweets
never failed to make headlines in conventional media, has
announced that he would no longer tweet personally leaving this
to his press service.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, on the contrary, said in a recent
interview that all his posts and other movements in social
networks were personal. Medvedev’s Facebook account has recently gained
one million likes.
This article originally appeared on: RT