Wednesday, September 21, 2016

To decipher it is impossible to pardon: will the FSB to analyze the traffic? – RIA Novosti

18:4921.09.2016

(updated: 19:06 21.09.2016)

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MOSCOW, 21 sen – news. Anton Polyakov. Today in mass media there was information that the FSB together with the Ministry of communications and Ministry of industry and trade to discuss the technical implementation of the issue decrypt all user Internet traffic and analyzing it for key words.

This measure is part of the widely discussed Federal law on countering terrorism. The objective pursued by state agencies, identifying in the traffic of suspicious activity, and words that can mean connection with the planned illegal activity. the

what is the problem

In his progressive development of the law on counteraction to terrorism are very predictable and logical. Want to store all user traffic at this stage, faced with the obvious problem of its further use, because most of it is encrypted.

Encrypted exchange of information with the sites operating according to the Protocol HTTPS can be encrypted exchange of messages to different messengers, encrypted data exchange with remote access to the corporate network of many companies, including mail and access to internal resources) are encrypted interbank transactions and the payment terminals.

to Store encrypted traffic makes no sense. Subsequently decode it can only be a hacking that sounds like science fiction, or if there are available keys. To access the keys in case on the way traffic to accommodate the gateway, which can simulate a opponent for each party. And since we are talking about such a “broker” that automatically got the idea to decrypt and analyse traffic on the fly. In the process, the gateway will receive and decrypt the traffic, analyze it, then encrypt and pass it on.

To implement this scheme it is necessary to take complex measures, including interaction with the developers of all browsers and create your own center of issuing of electronic certificates SSL.

However, this scheme is easy to get around. It is possible to separately encrypt the data before it reaches the level of the Protocol HTTP, and then the interception will become meaningless. You can also be sure that the programs that encrypt all traffic will be public in a few days after the launch of such a system.

Comments

But the main question is – what kind of information you wish to state agencies? After all, what the user has typed in the browser and what sites he visits, you can learn an easier way. If the user wants to hide from the “mediator” transmitted in the network information, subject to change in social networks or forums, he can find dozens of approaches. So contact with the storage and decryption of traffic is a controversial issue.

In this transcript of traffic in any place can lead to the collapse of entire systems. For example, a Bank.

“the Internet is not “saytik” as many can think, and a giant communications system” — commented Alexey Karpov, CTO of one of the leading Russian media. “Deciphering the traffic will hit, including on the banking system. After all, if someone will have access to Bank traffic, passing it through yourself, trust this communication channel will be gone soon. Uncontrolled mediation system can be attacked from the side, and in this case, who will guarantee the security and reliability of data?” — summarizes Karpov.