No trial for investigation

Will Yandex comply with the requirements of the FSB?

The FSB demanded from Yandex access to users' session keys. Leaving aside the details, this is a type of encryption keys, the receipt of which can open access to almost all Yandex services of a particular user, including financial, trade and transport, as well as geolocation, mail and remote storage of personal files.

With sufficient qualifications, the owner of the session keys is able to establish full control over all user data.

The key detail of the scandal is that the FSB requires access to encryption keys without a court order. She already has full access by judicial authorization: according to the Judicial Department at the Supreme Court of Russia, last year the courts granted 828.5 thousand requests from law enforcement agencies for access to correspondence and control of telephone conversations of citizens. For comparison, only 6.6 thousand such applications were rejected. If the scenario of extrajudicial access to passwords is implemented, any Yandex user will face the question: at what level in the FSB structure will his data be available?

If clerical orders (departmental by-laws of the FSB) describe the powers of the operational staff, by analogy with SORM, then almost everyone will have access. However, the number of corruption cases, including data leaks, and their scale are such that there can be no trust in our intelligence officers.

It takes many years of hard work to restore its reputation in a country where stolen departmental up-to-date databases are sold on the Internet.

In order for the FSB to be believed, the service should not be renamed, as they like in our country, but disbanded and created anew with a completely different control system. Otherwise, the leaks will not stop. At the same time, we, together with the whole world, are on the threshold of a revolution. Soon all the finances of citizens will be transferred to the services of social networks and instant messengers. Those who claim our money have already begun the battle for reputation, including the creator of Telegram, which is not controlled by the FSB, Pavel Durov.

In preparation for this transformation, Yandex recently entered into a financial and trade alliance with Russia's main market player, Sberbank. The very threat of leaks through extrajudicial access to session keys will cause irreparable damage to Yandex's reputation. On the one hand, it is forced to violate the rights of users by a powerful intelligence agency, on the other hand, American digital monopolies that are not subordinate to anyone develop their encrypted services.

Yevgeny Lifshits, a member of the expert council of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, expressed to Novaya Gazeta the opinion that at the current level of confrontation, Yandex would not comply with the FSB's requirements, even if written, on the transfer of encryption keys, if they are not confirmed by a court decision. Without a court order, this can be done bypassing the procedure only in case of emergency. Mr. Lifshitz refers to such acts as a terrorist attack or a catastrophe with a large number of victims. In other cases, Yandex will continue to require court approval. There will be no access to encryption keys at the discretion of an operational officer of any rank.

Perhaps the whole current story is just a test for resistance and a statement of intentions: the security forces are testing techies for a tooth.

Will they be allowed extrajudicial access to our secrets and money? We will find out about this soon - by the decision to block or otherwise punish the abandoned Yandex. Or about forgiveness - this is also still possible.