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The State Duma and the FSB offer domestic products for measuring Internet speed.
The State Duma and the FSB supported the proposal to exclude the use of the American Speedtest service by Ookla by Russian telecom operators. This initiative was put forward by the International Academy of Telecommunications (IAC), and its support is reflected in official responses sent to the IAS from the lower house of parliament and the law enforcement agency. According to Izvestia, the letters contain consent to the mandatory use of Russian software products to measure Internet speed instead of foreign analogues.
Anastasia Ositis, president of the International Academy of Telecommunications, said that Ookla "works in close connection with the US intelligence services". In her appeal to the State Duma, the text of which was reviewed by Izvestia, she noted that the Speedtest service collects data on communication networks that can be used for cyberattacks against information resources in any country. The document also indicates that this service is a tool of "colonial dependence" in the ICT sector, similar to the SWIFT system in the banking sector.
IAU Academician Sergey Melnik explained that test control systems allow you to obtain data on network configurations, equipment used, load and bandwidth. This data can fall into the hands of foreign intelligence services and be used, for example, to organize targeted DDoS attacks.
Melnyk also added that blocking Speedtest is technically difficult, so operators should remove its software from their systems. After that, users will not be able to use the service to measure internet speed from their devices. As an alternative, he proposed Russian developments, such as the Linkmeter system.
The agreement with the IAC proposal was expressed not only in the State Duma and the FSB, but also in other state bodies. However, as Melnyk noted, there are no legal mechanisms that oblige operators to switch to Russian software yet.
Izvestia sent requests to the FSB, the Ministry of Digital Development and Ookla for comments. In the State Duma, the proposal was submitted for consideration to Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Grigorenko, as announced by Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Pyotr Tolstoy in his letter to the IAU. Grigorenko's office confirmed the receipt of this appeal.
Pyotr Tolstoy noted in an interview with Izvestia that "even the potential possibility of access to the data of Russia's telecom infrastructure by geopolitical opponents is unacceptable." He added that in the current situation, there should be no software on the networks of Russian operators that could pose a security threat.
Megafon said that they had not received notifications about the IAS proposal. They also stressed that Speedtest is the most popular service for measuring Internet speed, but not the only one available on the Russian market.
Experts note that the main advantage of Speedtest is its global coverage - the company has more than 16 thousand servers around the world. Thanks to this, the service can provide accurate data on Internet speed anywhere in the world.
There are also other speed measurement services on the market, including Polish testskorosti.ru, the open-source project LibreSpeed, Fast.com from Netflix, as well as American Testmy.net and SpeedOf.Me. However, the use of these foreign services can carry certain risks for cybersecurity, as they often transfer more data abroad than is specified in their user agreements, experts add.
There are already alternatives to Speedtest on the Russian market, such as Megabitus from TelecomDaily and QMS from Rostelecom, the latter of which is included in the register of domestic software of the Ministry of Digital Development. It is noted that the situation with SpeedTest is not an example of fair competition, since the company does not comply with Russian laws and does not pay taxes in the country. If Russian companies had acted in a similar way, their work would have been suspended long ago.
Although the proposal of the International Academy of Telecommunications is considered relevant, at the moment there are no formal grounds for a complete ban on Speedtest. If this service is removed from Russian networks, it will be more difficult for operators to correctly measure access speed. However, this won't be a significant problem for users, as there are other services on the market that support this functionality.
Source
The State Duma and the FSB supported the proposal to exclude the use of the American Speedtest service by Ookla by Russian telecom operators. This initiative was put forward by the International Academy of Telecommunications (IAC), and its support is reflected in official responses sent to the IAS from the lower house of parliament and the law enforcement agency. According to Izvestia, the letters contain consent to the mandatory use of Russian software products to measure Internet speed instead of foreign analogues.
Anastasia Ositis, president of the International Academy of Telecommunications, said that Ookla "works in close connection with the US intelligence services". In her appeal to the State Duma, the text of which was reviewed by Izvestia, she noted that the Speedtest service collects data on communication networks that can be used for cyberattacks against information resources in any country. The document also indicates that this service is a tool of "colonial dependence" in the ICT sector, similar to the SWIFT system in the banking sector.
IAU Academician Sergey Melnik explained that test control systems allow you to obtain data on network configurations, equipment used, load and bandwidth. This data can fall into the hands of foreign intelligence services and be used, for example, to organize targeted DDoS attacks.
Melnyk also added that blocking Speedtest is technically difficult, so operators should remove its software from their systems. After that, users will not be able to use the service to measure internet speed from their devices. As an alternative, he proposed Russian developments, such as the Linkmeter system.
The agreement with the IAC proposal was expressed not only in the State Duma and the FSB, but also in other state bodies. However, as Melnyk noted, there are no legal mechanisms that oblige operators to switch to Russian software yet.
Izvestia sent requests to the FSB, the Ministry of Digital Development and Ookla for comments. In the State Duma, the proposal was submitted for consideration to Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Grigorenko, as announced by Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Pyotr Tolstoy in his letter to the IAU. Grigorenko's office confirmed the receipt of this appeal.
Pyotr Tolstoy noted in an interview with Izvestia that "even the potential possibility of access to the data of Russia's telecom infrastructure by geopolitical opponents is unacceptable." He added that in the current situation, there should be no software on the networks of Russian operators that could pose a security threat.
Megafon said that they had not received notifications about the IAS proposal. They also stressed that Speedtest is the most popular service for measuring Internet speed, but not the only one available on the Russian market.
Experts note that the main advantage of Speedtest is its global coverage - the company has more than 16 thousand servers around the world. Thanks to this, the service can provide accurate data on Internet speed anywhere in the world.
There are also other speed measurement services on the market, including Polish testskorosti.ru, the open-source project LibreSpeed, Fast.com from Netflix, as well as American Testmy.net and SpeedOf.Me. However, the use of these foreign services can carry certain risks for cybersecurity, as they often transfer more data abroad than is specified in their user agreements, experts add.
There are already alternatives to Speedtest on the Russian market, such as Megabitus from TelecomDaily and QMS from Rostelecom, the latter of which is included in the register of domestic software of the Ministry of Digital Development. It is noted that the situation with SpeedTest is not an example of fair competition, since the company does not comply with Russian laws and does not pay taxes in the country. If Russian companies had acted in a similar way, their work would have been suspended long ago.
Although the proposal of the International Academy of Telecommunications is considered relevant, at the moment there are no formal grounds for a complete ban on Speedtest. If this service is removed from Russian networks, it will be more difficult for operators to correctly measure access speed. However, this won't be a significant problem for users, as there are other services on the market that support this functionality.
Source
