It seems that Russia’s plan to disconnect from the global internet is close to becoming a reality. An official website of the Russian government has confirmed the news released in early February (2019). And it is expected that Russia will conduct the first “internet shutdown” test soon.
Said as a form of defense for a future cyber war. The tool, accompanied by the internal network (intranet), would also inevitably serve as a form of public control – as with China. Russia will conduct the test of both by the end of April.
Russia’s internal network, named “Runet“, will be controlled by the government itself. And it will allow citizens to remain connected. The curious thing about this system is that emails and other connections will still be allowed but controlled by the government in some undisclosed way.
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A good alternative to defense?
According to studies conducted by Oracle, no. Centralizing the entire network infrastructure is exactly the opposite of what should be done in attack cases. Therefore, shutting down the network would only make the situation more complicated for Russia. In a hypothetical attack scenario, the ideal is to decentralize the network infrastructure and develop a robust defense system. When centralized, the threat can easily reach all targets.
The news portal The Telegraph recalls that the Russian government has sought ways to reduce the freedom of its public. It has occurred following the demonstrations against Vladimir Putin (between 2011 and 2013) facilitated by access to social networks. Since then, the government has fined or imprisoned many young Russians for publications ridiculing national institutions.
In addition, the Russian government has already tried to force Internet giants – such as Facebook and Twitter – to reallocate their servers into the country, where intelligence agents would have access to users’ data.
In conclusion, even without knowing the reason for the creation of this internal network, or the disconnection of the global internet, there is no doubt that the most prejudiced will be the citizens and the national security itself. It remains to wait for more news.
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