IT experts: Roskomnadzor probably tested the possibility of mass blocking of DNS services Goolge and Cloudflare

IT specialists Mikhail Klimarev and Artem Ionov reported that on the evening of September 8, Roskomnadzor tested the possibility of mass blocking of public DNS services Google and Cloudflare at large providers. These services are used to obtain information about domains and are used, for example, in cash registers.

The exercises could take place from 21:00 to 22:00 using technical means of countering threats (TSPU), which operators are required to establish under the law on “sovereign runet”.

Roskomnadzor tools operate using DPI (deep packet inspection) technology. Thus, the authorities monitor the user's Internet traffic for a number of parameters and can limit or slow it down if there is a goal to degrade the performance of any service.

For example, Roskomnadzor slows down Twitter on mobile devices due to the company's refusal to remove “illegal” content.

update

19:10 In the evening of September 9, TASS, citing Roskomnadzor, reported that the Center for Monitoring the Management of Public Communication Networks of the Russian Federation and the RKN demanded that “DNS and CDN service providers” stop giving users the means to bypass restrictions on access to the Smart Voting application and website the team of Alexei Navalny.

The RKN substantiated its demands by the orders of the Central Election Commission and the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation.

“If the requirements are not met, these actions will be considered as foreign interference in the election campaign,” added Roskomnadzor.

The Russian authorities sent claims to Apple, as well as DNS and CDN services of Google, Cisco, Cloudflare and others

Navalny's team specialist Ionov writes that “a large number of people” remained without access to services on September 8, without giving exact numbers. Director of the “Society for the Protection of the Internet” Klimarev recorded “about 75% of access in the country.”

According to Klimarev, the Russian authorities may block YouTube in the country during the elections on September 18-19.

Earlier, a document on “restricting access to a number of foreign DNS services,” including Google and Cloudflare, appeared on the Escher II telegram channel. The authenticity of this paper has not been verified.

Photo: “Escher II”

ISPs did not comment on DNS blocking messages.