Critical infrastructure owners forced to migrate to Russian software

This follows from a draft presidential decree submitted by Alexey Sokolov, Deputy Head of the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media, to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Federal Service for Technical and Export Control (FSTEC), RBC reports. Also, the migration to domestic equipment may become a must for CII owners from 2022.

The CII objects include networks and IT systems of government agencies, scientific organizations, banks, as well as defense, nuclear, fuel and energy sector enterprises, and other companies. They must connect their facilities to the State system of computer attacks detection, prevention and management created by the FSB. Violation of the rules may entail criminal charges.

The office of Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov told RBC that they had not seen the document yet, but had been aware of the initiative of the Ministry of Communications and supported it.

Authorities must have approved the procedures for migration to domestic hardware and software by September. The Ministry of Communications proposes to oblige CII owners to use software from the registers of approved software made in Russia and the EAEU. The CII owners are supposed to only use equipment from the register of Russian radio-electronic products.