Roskomnadzor is preparing its own geolocation database

An organization subordinate to Roskomnadzor is developing its own database that allows you to compare IP addresses with their approximate location; it is planned to open access to it in early 2024. It will differ from the databases offered by foreign companies in indicating the affiliation of the regions: Crimea and the territories annexed in 2022 will be recorded in it as part of the Russian Federation. Now administrators of Russian sites, who block access for users from Ukraine, may unwittingly close it for residents of the DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions. Experts note that the cost of developing a new database depends, among other things, on the required geolocation accuracy.

The director of the Center for Monitoring and Management of the Public Communications Network (CMU SSOP), subordinate to Roskomnadzor, Sergei Khutortsev, said during the Spectrum forum in Sochi that at the beginning of 2024, a Russian information system will be operational, which will contain a trusted database of geolocation of IP addresses. “The system will combine many sources of information, including databases and information about IP addresses from our systems and telecom operators. And the final file with information on geographic distribution will be relatively freely available to users and system owners,” he said (quoted by TASS).

The system was required because now most digital services use foreign sources of data on the geographic location of network addresses. “But this database currently contains incorrect data about our new regions, the Republic of Crimea,” noted Mr. Khutortsev. According to him, this year the department has recorded more than 400 requests from residents of new and separate regions of the Russian Federation who cannot access Russian services due to incorrect databases of geographic IP addresses.

Geolocation IP (GeoIP) databases allow Internet service owners to match a visitor’s IP address (identifying devices on the network) with its approximate location, typically at the country and city level. They are used, in particular, by online stores to determine the city of delivery, and such databases are also used to restrict access to content based on geography (see “Kommersant” dated July 21).

The databases are compiled, as a rule, by commercial companies; their main developers are the American MaxMind and the Malaysian IP2Location.

They take information about the country of IP addresses from the databases of regional Internet registrars (non-profit organizations that ensure the operation of the Internet at the macro-region level, in Europe – RIPE NCC), and then enrich it with commercial data and thereby increase accuracy.

The NeuStar database classifies IP addresses identifying clients in the DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions as Ukraine. The Ministry of Digital Development instructed telecom operators operating in these territories to re-register IP addresses into the Russian address space, they wrote “Vedomosti” in March 2023. At the same time, in December 2022, the RIPE NCC introduced the ability to voluntarily block such transfers of resources: this measure was positioned as a way to protect Ukrainian companies from forced transfers.

The Ministry of Digital Development did not respond to Kommersant’s request. +7Telecom (one of the telecom operators operating in the DPR) told Kommersant that the introduction of such a system will increase the verification of IP addresses, “including in new territories.”

Some companies block access to their websites for visitors from Ukraine, but due to inconsistencies in the information in the databases, addresses in new regions are also blocked, says Dmitry Nikonov, head of web application level protection at DDoS-Guard. The initiative, in his opinion, should streamline information, as well as “allow government agencies to carry out investigative and operational activities, such as searching for extremists and conducting additional security checks.”

Almost every Internet company of the size of Yandex and VK solves the problem of IP geopositioning on its own, says Qrator Labs CEO Dmitry Tkachev.

According to him, the cost of developing a new geolocation database depends on the accuracy required, as well as how dynamically it is planned to update it: “IP addresses often change their country, especially in the last five years, due to the developed market for their sale and rental.”

If the volume of data in the database is planned to be limited only to data on those local Internet registrars (LIRs) that fall under Russian jurisdiction, then the Central Management Office of the SSOP will probably be able to release the database within the stated time frame, Kommersant’s source in the telecom industry believes: “For for a specific task such as adjusting geo-blocking, they will likely be sufficient.”

Timofey Kornev, Yuri Litvinenko