Monday 11 February 2019

Russia prepares to disconnect its Internet

In December 2018, Russia passed a law mandating that ISPs must be able to disconnect the Russian Internet space (Runet) from the rest of the Internet, in case of foreign aggression. They also mandated that ISPs forward traffic to the Russia's telecoms watchdog for inspection.

The apparent preparations by countries such as Russia and China for cyberwar are concerning. Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, amongst others, can easily cut themselves from the rest of the global Internet to protect themselves. Western countries, such as the US and UK, are far less able to do this.