The virtual number will not work – Newspaper Kommersant No. 51 (7496) dated 03/25/2023

Roskomnadzor proposes to use equipment installed by providers under the law on the sovereign runet to restrict access to anonymization tools. The department separately attributed services for the use of virtual phone numbers to those. The description also includes numbers on Pavel Durov’s Fragment platform, which can be bought for cryptocurrency for anonymous registration in Telegram. Lawyers remind that the use of virtual numbers in itself is not illegal.

Kommersant got acquainted with the draft government decree developed by Roskomnadzor, which proposes to change the rules for centralized management of the public communication network. We are talking about a document describing the installation of equipment for technical means of countering threats (TSPU) on the networks of telecom operators in the framework of the law on the sovereign runet. According to the draft, the number of threats that are prescribed to be filtered through TSPU is planned to include sites that allow anonymizing Internet users. In the explanatory note, Roskomnadzor clarifies that these include services that allow you to register on websites and instant messengers using a virtual phone number. The amendments, if adopted by the government, will come into force on March 1, 2024.

Since May 2019, messengers operating in Russia must identify users. This is usually done when registering using a mobile phone number, which cannot be issued anonymously in the Russian Federation. Roskomnadzor proceeds from the fact that access to sites that allow registration through virtual numbers “promotes the use of communication services for illegal purposes” and violates the security of the Internet in Russia.

Registration via a mobile phone number is also implemented in popular instant messengers that position themselves as secure – Telegram and Signal. At the same time, since December 2022, Telegram allows you to register for virtual numbers purchased for cryptocurrency on the Fragment service founded by Pavel Durov. Telegram did not respond to Kommersant’s request.

Recently, for fraudulent activities, SIP telephony (a type of protocol that provides data exchange on the network in multimedia format) is most often used, including using virtual numbers, Kommersant was told at the CERT-GIB Information Security Incident Response Center. At the same time, according to them, scammers began to make calls through messengers more often: “This helps to bypass the protection measures of mobile operators and not spend money on changing the number, and such calls rarely cause suspicion in the victim.” Earlier, experts noted that due to the reduction in the number of Russian numbers available for substitution, fraudsters began to use numbers from other countries that are visually similar to Russian ones (see Kommersant on February 17). Malefactors use virtual mobile numbers in 57% of cases, estimated in Informzashchita company. The largest telecom operators MTS, Vimpelcom, MegaFone and Tele2 declined to comment.

The proposed restrictions may be wider than described by Roskomnadzor in the explanatory note: not only communication services, but also information systems fall under them, says Evgeny Kravchenko, an expert at the DRC law firm: “According to the law, the concept of an information system is somewhat broader, so any means of anonymization can potentially be filtered “. At the same time, he recalled that in Russia it is not forbidden to use virtual numbers or other similar means: “But if you commit an offense through a virtual number or VPN and if you manage to correlate you and the service, then, obviously, there will be a threat of punishment.”

Programs that open access to information prohibited in the Russian Federation are already subject to filtering through TSPU according to existing rules, and the Tor browser site, which allows you to anonymously visit sites, is blocked by a court decision, said Ekaterina Abashina, a lawyer at the DBA and Partners CCA Moscow . She noted that the system of centralized management of Internet traffic “by itself invites arbitrary decisions”, blocking through TSPU does not imply the same openness as blocking through registers of prohibited sites: “It will not work to check online what exactly is being filtered through TSPU.”

Yuri Litvinenko, Tatiana Isakova