Experts of the RIPE NCC organization - a structure that distributes IP addresses and other Internet resources in a number of countries in Europe and the Middle East - recently bill "On the sovereign Runet". According to RBC, it revealed provisions that could complicate the life of Rostelecom.
What's the problem?
The bottom line is that state structures, operators and so on cannot, according to the bill, use foreign databases and equipment located abroad. However, Rostelecom, which is the largest Internet provider in Russia, uses foreign bases for the operation of the Unified Identification and Authentication System, as well as the Unified Biometric System. These are RIPE DB databases, which after the adoption of the law may become inaccessible. And this means stopping the work of both systems.
What do the experts think?
βThe Law on Sovereign Runet directly prohibits state-owned companies from using foreign databases. Including, obviously, RIPE DB. So we, as an organization, will follow with great interest the by-laws that can improve the situation. The RIPE DB database contains data on all possible routes of our region on the Web - if the law remains unchanged, Rostelecom will lose the opportunity to legally receive information about these routes, βsaid RIPE NCC Director for External Relations in Eastern Europe and Central Asia Alexey Semenyaka. At the same time, Rostelecom itself declined to comment.
And the chief analyst of the Russian Association for Electronic Communications (RAEC), Karen Kazaryan, noted that the ban could also hit Russian Railways and other organizations. Although the idea itself was originally to prohibit the placement of state information systems abroad. But in the current version, it will have a negative impact on Russian resources. At the same time, Russian Railways itself has already stated that their system does not need the Internet to work.
βThat is, RZD information systems do not have links with foreign and even Russian databases. For the organization of train work, telephone communication is sufficient, through which neighboring stations exchange information about the train, βsaid the representative of the carrier. However, online ticketing may be affected.
Everything is lost?
The solution to bypass the restrictions was proposed by the same Kazaryan. According to him, any non-governmental organization will have to make a copy of the necessary database, from which the state structure will take information.
It would not even be copying in the proper sense, but rather mediation - providing access to a particular database through another company. Of course, there is the possibility of some interruptions, but this is a purely technical issue, and to the same extent, problems could arise with the database itself, βthe analyst noted.
And Ekaterina Dedova, head of TMT practice Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner Russia, believes that the draft law "On sovereign Runet" refers users to regulatory legal acts that do not yet exist. Therefore, it is now difficult to say how it will affect the Runet as a whole.
Source: 3dnews.ru