FAPSI
Encyclopedia
FAPSI or Federal Agency of Government Communications and Information (FAGCI) was a Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n government agency, which was responsible for signal intelligence and security of governmental communications. Now it is part of the Federal Security Service (FSB).

History

FAPSI was created from the 8th (Government Communications) and 16th (Electronic Intelligence) Chief Directorates of the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...

. It is the equivalent to the American National Security Agency
National Security Agency
The National Security Agency/Central Security Service is a cryptologic intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the collection and analysis of foreign communications and foreign signals intelligence, as well as protecting U.S...

. On September 25, 1991, Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...

 dismantled the KGB into several independent departments. One of them became the Committee on Government Communications under the President of Soviet Union. On December 24, 1991 after the disbanding of the Soviet Union the organization became the Federal Agency of Government Communications and Information under the President of Russian Federation. On March 11, 2003 the agency was reorganized into the Service of Special Communications and Information of FSB.

Structure

According to the press, the structure of FAPSI copies the structure of the US National Security Agency
National Security Agency
The National Security Agency/Central Security Service is a cryptologic intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the collection and analysis of foreign communications and foreign signals intelligence, as well as protecting U.S...

, it includes:
  • Chief R&D Directorate (Главное научно-техническое управление)
  • Chief directorate of government communications
  • Chief directorate of security of communications
  • Chief directorate of information technology (Главное управление информационных систем)
  • Special troops of FAPSI
  • Academy of Cryptography
  • Military School of FAPSI in Voronezh
    Voronezh
    Voronezh is a city in southwestern Russia, the administrative center of Voronezh Oblast. It is located on both sides of the Voronezh River, away from where it flows into the Don. It is an operating center of the Southeastern Railway , as well as the center of the Don Highway...

    , sometimes referred as the world largest hacker's school
  • Military school of communications in Orel
    Oryol
    Oryol or Orel is a city and the administrative center of Oryol Oblast, Russia, located on the Oka River, approximately south-southwest of Moscow...

  • Moscow Department of Penza Scientific Research Electrotechnics Institute (МО ПНИЭИ), manufacturer of software and hardware used by the above agencies

16th directorate of KGB

  • Nikolai Nikolaevich Andreev (1968–1973)
  • Major-General Igor Vasilievich Maslov (1973-?)

Committee on Government Communications under President of Soviet Union

  • General A.V. Starovoitov(1991)

Federal Agency of Government Communications and Information

  • General A.V. Starovoitov(1991–1998)
  • Vladislav Petrovich Sherstyuk (1998–1999) - former chief of Radio-electronics intelligence department of the agency
  • Vladimir Georgievich Matykhin (1999–2003) - a civilian specialist on cryptography
    Cryptography
    Cryptography is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of third parties...

     and data protection

FAPSI and the Internet

FAPSI was always interested in monitoring of Internet activities.

In 1994 it bought major Russian internet provider of that time RELCOM
RELCOM
RELCOM or Relcom , an acronym for "RELiable COMmunications" is a computer network in Russia. It was launched in the Soviet Union on August 1, 1990 in the Kurchatov Institute in collaboration with DEMOS co-operative RELCOM or Relcom , an acronym for "RELiable COMmunications" is a computer network in...

. According to their explanation they were not interested in interception of the network traffic, but in Internet experience of the firm and in utilization of "FAPSI's excess computing power and network bandwidth".

In 1995 by decree of President Boris Yeltsin
Boris Yeltsin
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999.Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents. On 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of...

 all cryptographic systems except those licensed by FAPSI were forbidden in the Russian Federation. There are widespread rumors that all systems licensed by FAPSI have backdoors allowing the agency to freely access the encrypted information.

Since 1998 they require that all Internet providers in Russia install their hardware named SORM
SORM
SORM is a technical system for search and surveillance in the internet...

 (СОРМ — Система Оперативно-Розыскных Мероприятий, System of Operative Investigative Actions) that allows filtering and remote control of internet traffic from FAPSI headquarters. Internet providers must pay for the devices (around US$15,000 http://www.comnews.ru/index.cfm?id=2986) directly to FAPSI. Despite the original resistance of Internet providers they complied. It is claimed, however, that no legal document requires ISPs to provide these services free of charge, and some people report that one large St. Petersburg ISP told FSB
FSB (Russia)
The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation is the main domestic security agency of the Russian Federation and the main successor agency of the Soviet Committee of State Security . Its main responsibilities are counter-intelligence, internal and border security, counter-terrorism, and...

 that it does not decline their request, but is going to bill them appropriately, for which this ISP never saw FSB come back. http://www.libertarium.ru/libertarium/l_sorm_molpro

Mishaps of the agency

One of the tasks of the agency is to protect government websites from getting hacked. Often they fail to do it by a very simple scenario - the domain is not paid for in time and becomes a trophy of cybersquatting
Cybersquatting
Cybersquatting , according to the United States federal law known as the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, is registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name with bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else...

.

In January 2004 site the election site http://www.putin2000.ru registered personally for Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...

 was not paid for in time and became a pornographic
Pornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...

 site. Eventually the site was closed down; and as of May, 2008, it operates as a replica of the 2000 election site, with notices that all materials on this site are presented exactly as they appeared in March 2000.

The agency's site, http://www.fagci.ru/, has become a website of a tourist agency (as retrieved in January 2007).

See Also

  • National Security Agency
    National Security Agency
    The National Security Agency/Central Security Service is a cryptologic intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the collection and analysis of foreign communications and foreign signals intelligence, as well as protecting U.S...

     (US)
  • GCHQ (UK)
  • Communications Security Establishment Canada

English


Russian

  • http://www.agentura.ru/dossier/russia/fapsi/
  • http://www.agentura.ru/dossier/russia/fapsi/story/
  • http://www.relcom.ru/Relcom/History/Full/
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