Re: Russian government’s disconnection test

Fri Nov 1 23:13:32 UTC 2019

I guess if all telecoms and carriers in Russia (or say China) are under strong government control/oversight, its fairly easy from a technology standpoint to block the outside world.

The thing that I always wonder about is the ability for citizens to bypass the restriction via satellite internet nowadays. I guess they need a law to make that illegal too, if found purchasing satellite internet gear, off to the gulag!

On the other hand, if Russia disconnected from the outside world, how would all their trolls and bot farms get any work done?

> On Nov 1, 2019, at 7:02 PM, Scott Weeks <surfer at mauigateway.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> --- surfer at mauigateway.com wrote:
> From: "Scott Weeks" <surfer at mauigateway.com>
> 
> Anyone got any technical info on how Russia plans to execute 
> a disconnection test of the internet?  
> ------------------------------------
> 
> 
> Got crickets, so now I have to respond to my own post on 
> what I just found out about it.  Is that like talking to 
> yourself? :)
> 
> https://www.npr.org/2019/11/01/775366588/russian-law-takes-effect-that-gives-government-sweeping-power-over-internet
> 
> "The "sovereign Internet law," as the government calls it, 
> greatly enhances the Kremlin's control over the Web. It was 
> passed earlier this year and allows Russia's government to 
> cut off the Internet completely or from traffic outside 
> Russia "in an emergency," as the BBC reported. But some of 
> the applications could be more subtle, like the ability to 
> block a single post."
> 
> "The equipment would conduct what's known as "deep packet 
> inspection," an advanced way to filter network traffic. 
> 
> "Regardless of what the government intends, some experts 
> think it would be technically difficult for Russia to 
> actually close its network if it wanted to, because of the 
> sheer number of its international connections."
> 
> "What I found was that there were hundreds of existing 
> Internet exchange points in Russia, some of which have 
> hundreds of participants...Many of them are international 
> network providers, he says, so "basically it's challenging 
> — if not impossible, I think — to completely isolate the 
> Russian Internet."
> 
> Belson says that the requirement for Internet service 
> providers to install tracking software will very likely 
> also be challenging in practice. He adds that it will be 
> difficult to get hundreds of providers to deploy it and 
> hard to coordinate that they're all filtering the same 
> content.
> 
> scott
> 
> 
> 
> 