KeepSOLID refused to connect to the register of prohibited sites at the request of Roskomnadzor

KeepSOLID refused to comply with the requirement of Roskomnadzor and will not connect to the state information system for blocking prohibited sites. This was reported by the MBH Media by the representative of the company Amina Epishev.

“Yes, we received a corresponding request from Roskomnadzor. In any case, the VPN Unlimited is not going to cooperate with Roskomnadzor and will not connect to the state information system for blocking prohibited sites, ”the company representative said.

The company also stated that in case of blocking, they intend to “fight the censorship” of Roskomnadzor.

Earlier, similar statements were made by OpenVPN and VYPRVPN services. The companies said they would not compromise and would protect the safety and confidentiality of their customers.

The day before, NordvPn said that they would consider “several options for actions”, and Kaspersky Lab said that she intends to fulfill the requirements of the department.

Roskomnadzor sent a message ten VPN services demanding that they join the register of prohibited sites (federal state information system, FGIS), the department’s website reported .

The messages were sent to Nordvpn, Hide My Ass!, Hola VPN, OpenVPN, Vyprvpn, ExpressvPn, Torguard, IPVanish, Kaspersky Secure Connection and VPN Unlimited. The department noted that the services, according to the Federal Law “On Information”, are required to connect to the Federal State Educational Standard within 30 days from the date of direction of requirements. Otherwise, Roskomnadzor can block the VPN services themselves.

According to amendments to the law “On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection”, since November 2017, VPN services, search engines, proxy servers and anonymizers are required to limit users access to sites prohibited in Russia. However, not all of them fulfill these obligations, those who refuse - Roskomnadzor blocks.

It is noteworthy that Roskomnadzor can not contact the VPN services about connecting to the registry. He sends a request only after the Federal Security Service (FSB) or another body that carries out operational-search activities. In February, the department stated that not a single such appeal from the security forces came to them.

The same services that are connected to the FGIS monitor the “main radio frequency center” (GRChz) subordinate to Roskomnadzor. However, in order to check the specific service, the corresponding order must be received by the GRCHC from Roskomnadzor. When this happens, the GRCC employees manually check whether the services are blocking the indicated resources, and then sends the report to the department. So, in March, Roskomnadzor ordered for the GRCHC the development of a system that will automatically check whether the sites prohibited in Russia are blocked by search engines, proxy servers, VPN and anonymizers. They plan to spend 25 million rubles on it.