Glyn Moody

Russia's intelligence agency the FSB, successor to the KGB, has posted a notice on its website claiming that it now has the ability to collect crypto keys for Internet services that use encryption. This meets a two-week deadline given by Vladimir Putin to the FSB to develop such a capability. However, no details have been provided of how the FSB is able to do this. The FSB's announcement follows the passage of Russia's wide-ranging surveillance law, which calls for metadata and content to be stored for six months, plus access to encrypted services. The new capability seems to go even further, since the FSB notice (in Russian) speaks of obtaining the "information necessary for decoding the electronic messaging received, sent, delivered, and (or) processed by users of the 'Internet' network."

Being able to decode Internet communications would seem to imply getting hold of any crypto keys that are used. However, it is still not clear what the new laws will require: "No one seems to know what this new law means in the slightest. Or, more accurately, the people who do know are keeping mum." Three of the services that are likely to be most affected by the new requirements are Facebook's WhatsApp, Telegram, and Viber.