More than a month after the bill trying to build a sovereign Internet came into force, Russia officially announced that it had completed the test, 'Russia's network services can still operate effectively after being separated from the global Internet'.
Reuters quoted Alexei middot, Deputy Minister of communications of Russia, on the 23rd; Sokolov said, "our goal is to provide uninterrupted Internet services on Russian territory under any circumstances. The results of this assessment show that government agencies and communication operators are ready to effectively respond to threats and ensure the effective operation of the Internet and communication. " He revealed that the test was conducted on a specially designated network.
On November 1 this year, the bill aimed at building Russia's sovereign Internet officially came into force. It stipulates that Russia's Internet infrastructure will gradually get rid of its dependence on overseas nodes in the future. Especially in case of external attacks, Russia can cut off its connection with the outside world and operate the 'Regional Internet' in Russia independently. To this end, Russia will build a domain name management system located in the territory, that is, a system for storing and obtaining network address and domain name information.
Reuters said Russia's move was "aggressive" against the U.S. national cyber security strategy. Li Yi, chief researcher of the Internet research center of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, told the global times on the 24th that the sovereign Internet being built in Russia is a defense measure against us cyber attacks. Domain name system is the key infrastructure of the Internet. In the current IPv4 system, there are only 13 domain name root servers in the world, including 10 in the United States and one in Britain, Sweden and Japan. All root servers are uniformly managed by ICANN, an Internet domain name and number distribution organization authorized by the U.S. government. Russia has been worried that if the United States cuts off the connection between Russia and the domain name root server, it may lead to the "loss of contact" between the Russian Internet and the global Internet. Li Yi said that if the network is "disconnected", Russian users may not be able to access websites with servers located abroad, and cross-border e-commerce, news and information acquisition and finance will be affected.
However, Li Yi said that all countries have recognized the importance of the domain name root server. Many countries, including Russia and China, have established the image of the domain name root server, which can ensure that users do not need to rely on the root server when accessing the website. In addition, Russia is also making efforts to build a domain name management system in its territory, requiring domestic operators and Internet companies to file in their own country. These means can reduce the impact of network disconnection. " However, it is not so simple to make everything look like nothing happened when the network is disconnected. "Li Yi said," if foreign Internet companies are affected by the will of the state and cut off services, Russian users will still be unable to log in to specific websites ".
The hegemony of the United States over the domain name root server is being challenged, and the "snowman plan" of IPv6 root server test and operation experiment project based on the new technical architecture is in progress. As of 2017, the snowman program has completed the erection of 25 IPv6 root servers around the world, of which 4 have been deployed in China. Li Yi said that with the promotion of the 'Snowman plan' in the IPv6 era, global network governance will show a decentralized trend. The United States will no longer be in sole power, and network governance will become more fair and transparent.