Duma approved the expansion of the powers of the FSB

The State Duma adopted in the first reading a government bill, which gives the FSB the right to investigate and suppress the actions that create threats to Russia's information security.

“The FSB is given the powers of conducting operational-search activities in order to prevent various threats in the field of information security,” ITAR-TASS quoted the words of the State Duma of Sergey Naryshkin.

He explained that "the draft law is aimed at suppressing crimes using IT technologies, including for terrorist purposes."

The bill submitted to the State Duma on October 17. Published on her website . It clarifies that "the tasks of operational-search activities include obtaining information about events or actions (inaction), which pose a threat of not only military, economic or environmental, but also information security of the Russian Federation."

The explanatory note to the bill refers to the “strengthening threats of national interests in this area”, the activation of “interstate information confrontation”, in which malicious software is used as a weapon.

According to the authors of the bill, the information systems of state authorities, credit, financial and educational organizations, the media, as well as critical infrastructure facilities are under threat.

In this regard, it is proposed to supplement the law “On operational-search activities” with the provisions “On obtaining information within the framework of operational-search activities” and to introduce to the Law “On the FSB of the Russian Federation” the appropriate change-on the establishment of FSB authorities by conducting operational-search measures.

“The adoption of the law will more effectively counteract threats in the context of large -scale informatization of all spheres of public life,” the developers of the bill summarize.