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Russia's Surveillance State Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan World Policy Journal 2013 30: 23 DOI: 10.1177/0740277513506378

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Russia's Surveillance State Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan World Policy Journal 2013 30: 23 DOI: 10.1177/0740277513506378 World Policy Journal http://wpj.sagepub.com/ Russia's Surveillance State Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan World Policy Journal 2013 30: 23 DOI: 10.1177/0740277513506378 The online version of this article can be found at: http://wpj.sagepub.com/content/30/3/23 Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com On behalf of: World Policy Institute Additional services and information for World Policy Journal can be found at: Email Alerts: http://wpj.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts Subscriptions: http://wpj.sagepub.com/subscriptions Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav Permissions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav >> Version of Record - Sep 23, 2013 What is This? Downloaded from wpj.sagepub.com at COLUMBIA UNIV on December 2, 2014 THE LUBYANKA Russia’s Surveillance State ANDREI SOLDATOV AND IRINA BOROGAN OSCOW—In March 2013, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security at the U.S. State Department issued a warning for Americans Mwanting to come to the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia next February: Beware of SORM. The System of Operative-Investigative Measures, or SORM, is Russia’s national system of lawful interception of all electronic utterances—an Orwellian network that jeopardizes pri- vacy and the ability to use telecommunications to oppose the govern- MAARTEN DIRKSE FALL 2013 23 Downloaded from wpj.sagepub.com at COLUMBIA UNIV on December 2, 2014 REPORTAGE ment. The U.S. warning ends with a list struction might seem like overreaction, of “Travel Cyber Security Best Practices,” but far from it. Anyone who wants to at- which, apart from the new technology, tend the Olympics needs a Spectator pass, resembles the briefing instructions for a which requires registering on the official Cold War-era spy: Sochi 2014 site, a procedure that includes Consider traveling with “clean” taking a photo. What is curious is that electronic devices—if you do not when clicking to take a photo, a MacBook need the device, do not take it. Oth- immediately warns the user that the site erwise, essential devices should have “is requesting access to your camera and all personal identifying information microphone. If you click Allow, you may and sensitive files removed or “sani- be recorded.” tized.” Devices with wireless con- But the Russian surveillance effort is nection capabilities should have the not limited to the Sochi area, nor confined Wi-Fi turned off at all times. Do to foreigners. For years, Russian secret ser- not check business or personal elec- vices have been busy tightening their hold tronic devices with your luggage at over Internet users in their country, and the airport. … Do not connect to now they’re helping their counterparts local ISPs at cafes, coffee shops, ho- in the rest of the former Soviet Union do tels, airports, or other local venues. the same. In the future, Russia may even … Change all your passwords before succeed in splintering the web, breaking and after your trip. … Be sure to re- off from the global Internet a Russian in- move the battery from your Smart- tranet that’s easier for it to control. phone when not in use. Technology is commercially available that can INTERCEPT TELECOM geo-track your location and activate Over the last two years, the Kremlin has the microphone on your phone. As- transformed Russia into a surveillance sume any electronic device you take state—at a level that would have made can be exploited. … If you must the Soviet KGB (Committe for State Secu- utilize a phone during travel con- rity) envious. Seven Russian investigative sider using a “burn phone” that uses and security agencies have been granted a SIM card purchased locally with the legal right to intercept phone calls cash. Sanitize sensitive conversa- and emails. But it’s the Federal Security tions as necessary. Service (FSB), the successor to the KGB, that defines interception procedures, and The list of recommendations ends they’ve done that in a very peculiar way. with the advice to discard the user’s phone In most Western nations, law enforce- and SIM card before returning. The in- ment or intelligence agencies must receive Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan are Russian investigative journalists who cover the operations of Russian security services. They are co-founders of the website Agentura, which chronicles the services’ activities. They also co-authored The New Nobility: The Restoration of Russia’s Security State and the Enduring Legacy of the KGB (Public Affairs, 2011). 24 WORLD POLICY JOURNAL Downloaded from wpj.sagepub.com at COLUMBIA UNIV on December 2, 2014 SURVEILLANCE a court order before wiretapping. That 265,937 in 2007 to 539,864 in 2012. warrant is sent to phone operators and In- These statistics do not include counterin- ternet providers, which are then required telligence eavesdropping on Russian citi- by law to intercept the requested informa- zens and foreigners. tion and forward it to the respective gov- At the same time, Moscow is crack- ernment agencies. In Russia, FSB officers ing down on ISPs that don’t adhere to are also required to obtain a court order their SORM obligations. We discovered to eavesdrop, but once they have it, they Roskomnadzor (the Agency for the Super- are not required to present it to anybody vision of Information Technology, Com- except their superiors in the FSB. Telecom munications, and Mass Media) statistics providers have no right to demand that covering the number of warnings issued the FSB show them the warrant. The pro- to ISPs and telecoms providers. In 2010, viders are required to pay for the SORM there were 16 such warnings, and there equipment and its installation, but they were another 13 in 2011. The next year, are denied access to the surveillance boxes. that number jumped to 30 warnings. In The FSB has control centers connected most cases, when the local FSB or prosecu- directly to operators’ computer servers. To tor’s office identified shortcomings, they monitor particular phone conversations or sent the information to Roskomnadzor, Internet communications, an FSB agent which warned the ISP. Penalties for failure only has to enter a command into the con- to meet their obligations are swift and sure. trol center located in the local FSB head- First, the ISP is fined, then if violations quarters. This system is replicated across persist, its license the country. In every Russian town, there may be revoked. are protected underground cables, which after securing connect the local FSB bureau with all In- TARGETING the legal ternet Service Providers (ISPs) and tele- WHOM? com providers in the region. That system, In 2011-2012, while ability to or SORM, is a holdover from the country’s protesters flooded snoop on Soviet past and was developed by a KGB Moscow’s streets, the mobile phones research institute in the mid-1980s. Re- phones of a num- cent technological advances have only up- ber of Russian op- and emails, dated the system. Now, the SORM-1 sys- position leaders and the russian tem captures telephone and mobile phone members of the State secret services communications, SORM-2 intercepts In- Duma were hacked. ternet traffic, and SORM-3 collects infor- Recordings of their targeted social mation from all forms of communication, private telephone networks. providing long-term storage of all infor- conversations were mation and data on subscribers, including even published on- line. On Decem- actual recordings and locations. ber 19, 2011, audio-files of nine tapped Over the last six years, Russia’s use of phone calls of Boris Nemtsov, a former SORM has skyrocketed. According to Rus- deputy prime minister and now a promi- sia’s Supreme Court, the number of inter- nent opposition leader, were posted on the cepted telephone conversations and email pro-government site lifenews.ru. Nemtsov messages has doubled in six years, from requested an official investigation. As yet, FALL 2013 25 Downloaded from wpj.sagepub.com at COLUMBIA UNIV on December 2, 2014 REPORTAGE none of the leakers have been found or protests broke out in Moscow prompted prosecuted, and the official investigation by Putin’s campaign to return to the presi- has not identified a single culprit. dency. All the FSB could muster was a fax, Such victims have no doubt they were signed by the chief of the St. Petersburg bugged and filmed by security services, FSB department, to Pavel Durov, a founder but only in the fall of 2012 did the first of the Russian social network VKontakte, clear indication emerge that SORM was requiring him to neutralize the websites of used to wiretap opponents of President protest groups. Durov refused. Vladimir Putin. On November 12, 2012, On March 27, 2012, this failure to find Russia’s Supreme Court upheld the right the means to deal with protesters’ activi- of authorities to eavesdrop on the op- ties on social networks was admitted by position. The court ruled that spying on the first deputy director of the FSB, Ser- Maxim Petlin, a regional opposition leader gei Smirnov. At a meeting of the regional in Yekaterinburg, was lawful since he had anti-terrorist group operating within the taken part in rallies that included calls Shanghai Cooperation Organization—a against extending the powers of Russia’s broad group of nations that includes most security services. The court decided that CSTO states as well as China—Smirnov these were demands for “extremist ac- referred directly to the challenge posed by tions” and approved surveillance and tele- the Arab Spring. “New technologies [are phone interception. being] used by Western special services to create and maintain a level of contin- FACEBOOK THREAT ual tension in society with serious inten- After securing the legal ability to snoop tions extending even to regime change.
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