14 DAY TRIAL // Russia’s FSB security service plans on monitoring all communications at the Winter Olympics that will take place at the Black Sea resort of Sochi in February.
According to The Guardian, the agency has deployed new phone and Internet monitoring systems that allows it to monitor and filter all traffic. Authorities are using Sorm, Russia’s phone and Internet interception system that’s reportedly being modernized across the whole country.
Russian authorities have been working on modernizing Sorm, which is named by experts a sort of “PRISM on steroids,” since 2010. All telecoms companies have to install Sorm boxes on their systems to allow the FSB to access data.
In theory, the agency needs a warrant to intercept communications. However, it doesn’t have to show it to anyone.
The man in charge of the Winter Olympics is Oleg Syromolotov, one of the FSB’s top counterintelligence bosses. The fact that Syromolotov has focused much of his activity on chasing foreign spies provides some indication as to what authorities are targeting.
The surveillance system, which will spy on both athletes and spectators, might also target gay rights activists. Russian President Vladimir Putin says that competitors will be allowed to wear rainbow pins, but any demonstrations in support of gay rights will be shut down by the police.
Earlier this year, US authorities warned those planning on attending the Winter Games to keep in mind that everything they had stored on their devices – including trade secrets and negotiating positions – might be “taken and shared with competitors, counterparts, and/or Russian regulatory and legal entities.”
While some believe that this will be the most invasive and systematic spying in the history of the Olympic Games, Russian officials say their measures will be far less intrusive than the ones of the British at the London Olympics, where even toilets were monitored with cameras.