On the defense of communication – Newspaper Kommersant No. 194 (7395) of 10/19/2022
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The Ministry of Industry and Trade asks industrial enterprises to stop using foreign instant messengers and videoconferencing systems (VCS), including Zoom, Skype and WhatsApp, in order to ensure cybersecurity. As an alternative, he suggests using Russian instant messengers and videoconferencing. Experts believe that there will be no technical problems with the transition to Russian solutions, but the human factor may interfere. Meanwhile, experts call the American Signal, the Swiss Threema, the American Wickr and Telegram the safest communication programs.
Kommersant has read the letter from the Ministry of Industry and Trade dated October 13 to the heads of industrial enterprises with a request to stop using foreign instant messengers and videoconferencing systems, in particular Zoom, Skype and WhatsApp, for official purposes. This measure is necessary to ensure the security of information that is not a state secret, follows from the letter.
As an alternative, the Ministry of Industry and Trade offers the services of Russian developers included in the register of domestic software. It is necessary to provide communication through Russian messengers both on computers and on smartphones, tablets and other devices. The Kommersant ministry confirmed the sending of letters: “This decision is due to the need to comply with government requirements and strengthen information security measures.”
258 communication software products are registered in the register of Russian software, 74 of them have the corresponding classifier code as the main one. Among the messengers and video communication programs included in the registry are Yandex.Messenger and Yandex.Telebridge, Jazz (developed by Sberbank), TrueConf, Kontur.Tolk, ICQ and TamTam. VK messenger was not found in the Kommersant registry, but the holding clarified that it is included there as part of the VK Ecosystem solutions.
The action plan of the state program “Creating additional conditions for the development of the information technology industry”, approved in 2021, already provides for the transfer of employees of government agencies and budgetary organizations to Russian software for communications (see “Kommersant” dated August 9, 2021). Back in 2021, Rostec banned the use of Zoom, Skype, WhatsApp and other foreign programs on work computers, RBC reported. Before the start of the current academic year, the Ministry of Education sent out a recommendation to the regions not to use foreign instant messengers in the educational process (see Kommersant of October 17).
TrueConf Development Director Dmitry Odintsov believes that the principle of operation of Russian and foreign public messengers “is no different” and their use “always comes with specific risks.” “Firstly, there is the possibility of intercepting data – information passes through servers in data centers, which are often located not even in our country,” the expert explains. “Secondly, access may be limited due to sanctions – and this is critical for large companies , whose employees are accustomed to constantly communicate, share files and solve work issues in instant messengers and videoconferencing services. Disabling a service, he points out, can hamper communication and slow down even the most basic processes, especially for industrial enterprises.
There are several major players on the market of corporate video conferencing solutions – IVA, TrueСonf and Vinteo, notes Stanislav Iodkovsky, CEO of IVA Technologies: “In addition, state-owned companies, such as Sberbank and VTB, are actively starting to work. Plus, there is a solution from Yandex, which can also replace the notorious Zoom.” Some solutions, according to him, are compatible with domestic operating systems: “I don’t think we should expect difficulties with the transition in technical terms. But from the point of view of budgeting and the human factor, difficulties are quite possible.”
According to a study by the integrator Artezio (part of the Lanit group), Signal from the American Open Whisper Systems (OWS) became the most secure messenger in 2022, followed by the Swiss Threema, followed by the American Wickr, Telegram, Viber, iMessage, and the last – Whatsapp. Analysts evaluated about 40 programs according to ten parameters that the messenger supports: default encryption, voice call encryption, video call encryption, deleting messages on devices, etc. social networks, as it “has a bad effect on privacy.” “VK messenger” was also tested, “the results were good, but experts cannot fully recommend it for private correspondence and include it in the top.”
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