This has nothing to do with cyber warfare. Its just pushing the envelope towards full censorship of the internet.<p>They get the systems in place, they run drills to get the population used to the idea, then they close specific sectors, then they close everything and have special "open sectors" and then you're fucked.<p>Don't fall for it.
> The test is also expected to involve ISPs demonstrating that they can direct data to government-controlled routing points. These will filter traffic so that data sent between Russians reaches its destination, but any destined for foreign computers is discarded.<p>> Eventually the Russian government wants all domestic traffic to pass through these routing points. This is believed to be part of an effort to set up a mass censorship system akin to that seen in China, which tries to scrub out prohibited traffic.<p>The internet is fragmenting.
It's a smart thing to do (to have such a plan) even if no cyberwar ever takes place. There are so many possible scenarios of what could go wrong and having autonomous but functioning internet is absolutely necessary.
Any sources on the quote in the article, <i>"Eventually the Russian government wants all domestic traffic to pass through these routing points. This is believed to be part of an effort to set up a mass censorship system akin to that seen in China, which tries to scrub out prohibited traffic."</i> ? I searched and all I came up with was several sites saying the exact same thing, literally word for word, or otherwise saying so without any sort of source or rationale behind it.<p>This seems like a very logical test for all countries to carry out. Certainly not enough to suggest it's some sort of precursor to Chinese level censorship if this action is all that's based on.
I would be very tempting to muck about with them such that when they finish their test and attempt to plug in again nothing actually happens and there’s still no traffic flowing
BBC says in bold:<p>> Russia is considering whether to disconnect from the global internet briefly, as part of a test of its cyber-defences.<p>Sounds scary. But than clarifies:<p>> The test will mean data passing between Russian citizens and organisations stays inside the nation rather than being routed internationally.<p>Which contradicts the previous sentence: Russia is not planning to disconnect from the global internet briefly.<p>I so disappointed at BBC for spreading misinformation.
Even though they are doing it for all the wrong reasons, I suggest this is probably going to be a good exercise for the internet, because these things could happen, and we have no idea what the fallout will be.<p>Randomly downing a few servers is often seen as good practice in ops to test for resiliency, and see how well things hold up as they are supposed to.<p>We will all learn a lot from it.<p>Of course it won't be good for Russians in the long run ...
I don't have a source handy but they tried this a few years ago -- the same exact thing. They failed because Russia has so many connections to the net. Let's hope they fail again.
Surprising it's Russia, not China, doing this first, as senior ex-Googlers like Eric Schmidt and Kaifu Lee brought up this "two internet" thing [1] [2]<p>[1] <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/20/eric-schmidt-ex-google-ceo-predicts-internet-split-china.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/20/eric-schmidt-ex-google-ceo-p...</a>
[2] <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/04/the-splinternet-an-internet-half-owned-by-china-and-the-us.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/04/the-splinternet-an-internet-...</a>
Recalls the Maginot line, in the case of cyber warfare. How man taps are there? Perhaps more sensible for managing the information presented to their own population in emergencies.
I wonder if this was why the Russians demanded that Apple put iCloud servers there.<p><a href="https://appleinsider.com/articles/15/09/11/apple-begins-storing-russian-icloud-data-within-country-complying-with-new-law---report" rel="nofollow">https://appleinsider.com/articles/15/09/11/apple-begins-stor...</a>
BBC coverage links to ZDNet article: <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/russia-to-disconnect-from-the-internet-as-part-of-a-planned-test/" rel="nofollow">https://www.zdnet.com/article/russia-to-disconnect-from-the-...</a>
Satellite internet might be a nice way to escape censorship, though it's fairly easy for the government to detect if you are transmitting stuff at the sky...