14 DAY TRIAL // The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), successor of the Soviet-era KGB, calls Gmail, Hotmail, and Skype encrypted communications a national security threat, prompting fears that they might get banned.
"Different software is being distributed allowing the encryption of traffic: that is services including Gmail, Hotmail and Skype.
"The uncontrolled use of these services could lead to a large-scale threat to Russian security," Alexander Andreyechkin, head of the Federal Security Service's special communications centre, told a government technology commission, according to RIA Novosti.
Andreyechkin's statement attracted quite a few angry comments from Russian Internet users who accuse the FSB of trying to block services like in China.
Meanwhile, according to Reuters, Russia's Communications Minister Igor Shchyogolev tried to put everyone's mind at ease by stressing that "there are no plans to cancel or close Skype, Gmail and Hotmail or any other foreign services working in Russia."
Instead, he claimed the government was looking into how to regulate the new technologies. What exactly would that entail is not really certain, but there aren't that many options to regulate such services, short of preventing them from offering encryption locally.
India is another country that expressed concerns about encrypted services like Gmail and Skype and was considering mandating that all companies offering secure communications to put the encryption keys into an escrow account for use by the country's national security agencies.
When asked about the move, Google India's head of products said that such a request would almost certainly be declined. The company would be willing, however, to comply with lawful requests for data, when there is a large-scale risk to human life and property.
Security agencies will increasingly face surveillance problems because more and more mainstream services, like Facebook and Twitter, are moving towards full-session encryption by default.