D
Dr. Jai Maharaj
Russian Lawmakers Don't Trust US-Made Computer Software
By Sergei Blagov
CNSNews.com Correspondent
CNSNews.com
May 15, 2006
Moscow (CNSNews.com) - A group of influential Russian
lawmakers has introduced legislation that seeks to rid
the country's military facilities and other strategic
government institutions of foreign-made computer
software.
Accusing the government of being "addicted" to imported
technology, the legislators are teaming up with Russian
IT developers in an effort to ban the use in those
sectors of software produced in other countries, mainly
the U.S.
Using foreign software makes Russia vulnerable to spying
and sabotage, charged State Duma deputies Gennady Gudkov
and Alexander Khinshtein, both members of United Russia,
the main pro-Kremlin party.
They have proposed the ban as part of a set of planned
amendments to a bill on information security, currently
awaiting a second Duma reading.
Gudkov, a member of the Duma's security committee, said
they "do not want to build an iron curtain for Western
software," but were opposed to a powerful pressure group
in Russia which was lobbying for the import of foreign IT
products.
Russia's dependence on foreign software reduced the
country's security and encouraged bribery among officials
in charge of procurement, they alleged.
Currently, more than 90 percent of all the software used
by the Russian government was of foreign origin, they
said.
Russia spends nearly $12 billion a year on foreign IT
products, said Gudkov.
Khinshtein said it was virtually impossible to ensure
foreign companies did not build devices into their
software to extract sensitive information from their
users.
He said it was "silly to hope that foreign security
agencies, under whose aegis large foreign companies
operate" would not use the opportunity to use IT products
to spy on Russia.
Under the proposal, strategic state organizations
identified by the government within one year of the law's
passage would be prohibited from using foreign IT
products where domestic equivalents were available.
The proposed legislation is seen here as having a strong
chance of eventual approval.
United Russia has a dominant positions in the Russian
parliament, with enough votes to approve constitutional
amendments.
Russian analysts and media have few doubts that U.S.
software is the primary target.
The liberal Nyezavisimaya Gazeta daily commented that the
party had declared war on Microsoft's Bill Gates.
The Moscow Times quoted Microsoft as saying Russia was
the first country to join a government security program
in developed in 2002, allowing government agencies to
view source codes for Windows and other Microsoft
products and ensure there was no security breach.
The proposed measure could serve a commercial purpose of
boosting Russia's homegrown IT industry.
Calls to limit or ban foreign software comes at a time
Russia is boosting exports of IT products.
While still far behind countries like India and Ireland,
Russian software exports reached $1 billion last year, an
increase on the previous year of nearly 30 percent.
Russia's younger generation of programmers have tended to
place high in international competitions. Russian teams
won five of the 12 medals at a recent global programming
championship sponsored by the U.S.-based Association for
Computing Machinery.
Parliament Friday approved a bill introducing tax breaks
for domestic IT firms.
More at:
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=/ForeignBureaus/archive/200605/INT20060515b.html
Jai Maharaj
http://tinyurl.com/a5ljc
http://www.mantra.com/jai
Om Shanti
Hindu Holocaust Museum
http://www.mantra.com/holocaust
Hindu life, principles, spirituality and philosophy
http://www.hindu.org
http://www.hindunet.org
The truth about Islam and Muslims
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate
o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the educational
purposes of research and open discussion. The contents of this post may not
have been authored by, and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the
poster. The contents are protected by copyright law and the exemption for
fair use of copyrighted works.
o If you send private e-mail to me, it will likely not be read,
considered or answered if it does not contain your full legal name, current
e-mail and postal addresses, and live-voice telephone number.
o Posted for information and discussion. Views expressed by others are
not necessarily those of the poster who may or may not have read the article.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This article may contain copyrighted material the use of
which may or may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright
owner. This material is being made available in efforts to advance the
understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic,
democratic, scientific, social, and cultural, etc., issues. It is believed
that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title
17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without
profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included
information for research, comment, discussion and educational purposes by
subscribing to USENET newsgroups or visiting web sites. For more information
go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this article for purposes of
your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the
copyright owner.
By Sergei Blagov
CNSNews.com Correspondent
CNSNews.com
May 15, 2006
Moscow (CNSNews.com) - A group of influential Russian
lawmakers has introduced legislation that seeks to rid
the country's military facilities and other strategic
government institutions of foreign-made computer
software.
Accusing the government of being "addicted" to imported
technology, the legislators are teaming up with Russian
IT developers in an effort to ban the use in those
sectors of software produced in other countries, mainly
the U.S.
Using foreign software makes Russia vulnerable to spying
and sabotage, charged State Duma deputies Gennady Gudkov
and Alexander Khinshtein, both members of United Russia,
the main pro-Kremlin party.
They have proposed the ban as part of a set of planned
amendments to a bill on information security, currently
awaiting a second Duma reading.
Gudkov, a member of the Duma's security committee, said
they "do not want to build an iron curtain for Western
software," but were opposed to a powerful pressure group
in Russia which was lobbying for the import of foreign IT
products.
Russia's dependence on foreign software reduced the
country's security and encouraged bribery among officials
in charge of procurement, they alleged.
Currently, more than 90 percent of all the software used
by the Russian government was of foreign origin, they
said.
Russia spends nearly $12 billion a year on foreign IT
products, said Gudkov.
Khinshtein said it was virtually impossible to ensure
foreign companies did not build devices into their
software to extract sensitive information from their
users.
He said it was "silly to hope that foreign security
agencies, under whose aegis large foreign companies
operate" would not use the opportunity to use IT products
to spy on Russia.
Under the proposal, strategic state organizations
identified by the government within one year of the law's
passage would be prohibited from using foreign IT
products where domestic equivalents were available.
The proposed legislation is seen here as having a strong
chance of eventual approval.
United Russia has a dominant positions in the Russian
parliament, with enough votes to approve constitutional
amendments.
Russian analysts and media have few doubts that U.S.
software is the primary target.
The liberal Nyezavisimaya Gazeta daily commented that the
party had declared war on Microsoft's Bill Gates.
The Moscow Times quoted Microsoft as saying Russia was
the first country to join a government security program
in developed in 2002, allowing government agencies to
view source codes for Windows and other Microsoft
products and ensure there was no security breach.
The proposed measure could serve a commercial purpose of
boosting Russia's homegrown IT industry.
Calls to limit or ban foreign software comes at a time
Russia is boosting exports of IT products.
While still far behind countries like India and Ireland,
Russian software exports reached $1 billion last year, an
increase on the previous year of nearly 30 percent.
Russia's younger generation of programmers have tended to
place high in international competitions. Russian teams
won five of the 12 medals at a recent global programming
championship sponsored by the U.S.-based Association for
Computing Machinery.
Parliament Friday approved a bill introducing tax breaks
for domestic IT firms.
More at:
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=/ForeignBureaus/archive/200605/INT20060515b.html
Jai Maharaj
http://tinyurl.com/a5ljc
http://www.mantra.com/jai
Om Shanti
Hindu Holocaust Museum
http://www.mantra.com/holocaust
Hindu life, principles, spirituality and philosophy
http://www.hindu.org
http://www.hindunet.org
The truth about Islam and Muslims
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate
o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the educational
purposes of research and open discussion. The contents of this post may not
have been authored by, and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the
poster. The contents are protected by copyright law and the exemption for
fair use of copyrighted works.
o If you send private e-mail to me, it will likely not be read,
considered or answered if it does not contain your full legal name, current
e-mail and postal addresses, and live-voice telephone number.
o Posted for information and discussion. Views expressed by others are
not necessarily those of the poster who may or may not have read the article.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This article may contain copyrighted material the use of
which may or may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright
owner. This material is being made available in efforts to advance the
understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic,
democratic, scientific, social, and cultural, etc., issues. It is believed
that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title
17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without
profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included
information for research, comment, discussion and educational purposes by
subscribing to USENET newsgroups or visiting web sites. For more information
go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this article for purposes of
your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the
copyright owner.