Civil servants will be prohibited from using instant messengers for personal purposes

Officials in Russia may be completely prohibited from using foreign instant messengers, including for personal purposes, in order to increase the security of state interests. This initiative was made by the deputy chairman of the State Duma Security Committee, a deputy from United Russia, Anatoly Vyborny.

“We live in realities where the consequences of leaking confidential information can be irreversible. This is especially important for civil servants who have access to DSP (documents for official use – note URA.RU) and other secret papers. <...> It is important to work through the ban for civil servants in our country as well,” Vyborny said in an interview with “Izvestia” He sent the proposal to Deputy Prime Minister and Chief of Staff of the Government Dmitry Grigorenko.

As information security expert Denis Barankov notes, Russian instant messengers can also pose a threat to government officials, the traffic of which can be tracked and listened to if desired. Strategically speaking, it would be right to create a separate Russian messenger for use exclusively in the civil service.

The Russian authorities had already planned to allocate a billion rubles to create an analogue of Telegram for officials. The network will have to replace foreign services and instant messengers. The project for civil servants is being handled by the Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation.