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                Date: 2000-09-02
                 
                 
                RU: SORM implementiert, ISPs zahlen
                
                 
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      Die russischen Network Operators und  ISPs kriegen ein  
nagelneues Überwachungssystem, das heisst, sie werden es  
sich halt leisten müssen. Dort geschieht dies wenigstens so  
halbwegs rüpelhaft, nämlich ganz offen durch die  
Geheimdienste. 
 
Im hochzivilisierten EU-Kulturraum besorgt diese  
Drecksarbeit ein Standardisierungsinstitut mit Namen ETSI in  
einem technischen Komitee namens SEC wie Security,  
Unterabteilung LI, wie "lawful interception".  
 
Dort tagen die Kollaborateure - die großen EU-Telekoms und  
ihre Ausrüster Alcatel, Comverse, Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia,  
Nortel, Siemens und andere - mit den so genannten  
"gesetzlich ermächtigten Behörden". Wobei die Polizei den  
Diensten die Mauer macht, um selber angemessen am  
Info/flusse zu partizipieren.  
 
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Saint Petersburg Times September 1, 2000 
 
NEWSPhone-Tapping Law Clears Final Hurdle By Masha  
Kaminskaya STAFF WRITERThe Communications Ministry  
has issued an order implementing a last stage for the  
installation of bugging equipment on all Russian phone  
networks, giving security services the unrestricted right to tap  
into any conversation. However, the news - which has  
aroused the indignation of the media and civil-rights  
advocates - is but the final point in a five-year-old project to  
monitor communications more closely on the part of the  
Federal Security Service, or FSB. "It is a mystery to me why  
everyone is making so much noise [about it] now, and not  
when all this began," said Yury Vdovin, vice president of the  
St. Petersburg-based human-rights group Citizen's Watch,  
which is preparing to file a lawsuit with the Constitutional  
Court demanding an investigation of laws regulating the  
installation of tapping equipment.The new order, issued by  
the Communications Ministry on July 25, summarizes all  
previous documents on communications interception in  
Russia, which have gone under the general label of SORM.  
SORM - which stands for System for Operational- 
Investigative Activities - was introduced in 1995. A similar  
Internet-tapping system, SORM-2, appeared in  
1999.According to federal law, it is the responsibility of all  
communications operators to facilitate tapping for the FSB  
and the police. Since 1995, all phone networks in Russia -  
state-owned or private, ordinary or cell-phone systems - have  
had listening equipment installed and running. Operators who  
do not meet SORM regulations are denied licenses by the  
Communications Ministry."All principal regulations relating to  
SORM remain the same in the [new] order," said Vyacheslav  
Oranzhereyev, head of communications security at the  
Communications Ministry. "All we did was clarify the  
[financial relations] between communications operators and  
law enforcement officers."According to Oranzhereyev, the  
one piece of news is that all SORM maintenance expenses -  
including, partly, the installation of channels that connect  
phone and Internet networks to the security services - will  
now officially be the responsibility of the operators.That,  
however, was hardly news to telephone operators."We have  
seen no changes in working with SORM [with this new  
order]," said Alexander Manoshkin, a public-relations  
specialist at the Moscow Cell Communications  
company."We have had SORM [equipment installed] since  
1995, when it became a necessary condition for [licensed  
activity on the market]," said Alexei Ionov, a spokesman for  
the St. Petersburg-based NorthWest GSM company. "All  
SORM expenses, if there are any, have always been met by  
us."Gennady Sokolovsky, a technical director for Peterstar  
Telecommunications, also said that his company's  
maintenance expenses on SORM would in no way affect  
customers' fees - another area of concern for opponents of  
the project.As for SORM's legality, Vdovin said that this  
question should have been addressed five years ago. While  
they are not a direct violation of the right to privacy, he said,  
the SORM regulations as a whole create the opportunity for  
unsanctioned limitations of that right.The FSB, police and tax  
police are obliged by law to get a warrant before they can bug  
telephone conversations or read e-mail, fax or pager  
messages.However, said Vdovin, another article in the same  
law "leaves all tapping devices in the hands of the security  
services," making it virtually impossible to monitor what they  
are doing."There is not a single guarantee that a police  
sergeant will not listen to my conversations or look into my  
correspondence to, say, blackmail me for having a mistress,"  
said Vdovin. "How about banks being unable to keep  
commercial information secret?""[Given SORM's] technical  
requirements, you will never know if your conversations are  
being listened to with a warrant," said Anatoly Levenchuk,  
project coordinator for human-rights watchdog Moscow  
Libertarium.FSB officials failed to respond to faxed questions  
or phone calls.Analogous wiretap systems used by the FBI  
and other secret services have long caused concern among  
human-rights advocates in the West.The U.S. National  
Security Agency's Echelon project - used to monitor and  
store e-mail and other electronic communications around the  
world - though still highly secretive, is infamous for  
circumventing legal procedures.And a recent study published  
in the United States said that the FBI has more than  
quadrupled its intelligence officers and nearly doubled the  
number of wiretaps and break-ins since 1992.But while civil- 
rights advocates have tried to draw attention to SORM  
through conferences and publications, an article in  
Thursday's Kommersant said that the St. Petersburg  
administration has signed a contract with an information  
security company to keep officials' conversations and files  
from prying eyes.While the technical aspects of the alleged  
information security system remain a secret, the company  
disclosed that City Hall officials will in some instances be  
able to use hacker-proof phone and computer lines. City Hall  
could not be reached for comment on Thursday.Yury  
Granovsky and Andrey Musatov contributed to this report. 
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Relayed by 
Barrys@aclu.org   
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edited by Harkank 
published on: 2000-09-02 
comments to office@quintessenz.at
                   
                  
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