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| ФАПСИ | |
 Emblem of FAPSI | |
 Flag of Federal agency of the governmental communication and the information | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | December 24, 1991; 33 years ago (1991-12-24) |
| Preceding agency | |
| Dissolved | March 11, 2003; 22 years ago (2003-03-11) |
| Superseding agency | |
| Jurisdiction | Russia |
| Headquarters | Moscow,Russia |
| Employees | Classified |
| Annual budget | Classified |
| Agency executive |
|
| Parent agency | The Kremlin Staff |
| Website | Official page at theWayback Machine (archive index) (not active) |
FAPSI (Russian:ФАПСИ) orFederal Agency of Government Communications and Information (FAGCI) (Russian:Федеральное Агентство Правительственной Связи и Информации) was a Russian government agency, which was responsible forsignal intelligence and security of governmental communications.
The present-day FAPSI successor agencies are the relevant departments of theFederal Security Service (FSB) andForeign Intelligence Service (SVR) as well as theSpecial Communications Service of Russia (Spetssvyaz) (part of theFederal Protective Service of the Russian Federation) (FSO RF).
FAPSI was created from the 8th Main Directorate (Government Communications) and 16th Directorate (Electronic Intelligence) of theKGB. It is the equivalent to the USANational Security Agency. On September 25, 1991, Soviet presidentMikhail Gorbachev dismantled the KGB into several independent departments. One of them became the Committee on Government Communications under the President of Soviet Union. On December 24, 1991 after the disbanding of the Soviet Union the organization became the Federal Agency of Government Communications and Information under the President of Russian Federation.
On March 11, 2003 the agency was reorganized into theService of Special Communications and Information (Spetssvyaz,Spetssviaz) (Russian:Служба специальной связи и информации) of theFederal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB RF). On August 7, 2004,Spetssviaz was incorporated as a structural sub unit of theFederal Protective Service of the Russian Federation (FSO RF).
According to the press, the structure of FAPSI copied the structure of the USNational Security Agency, it includes:
FAPSI was always interested in monitoring of Internet activities.
In 1994 it bought major Russian internet provider of that timeRELCOM. According to their explanation they were not interested in interception of the network traffic, but in Internet experience of the firm and in utilization of "FAPSI's excess computing power and network bandwidth".
In 1995 by decree of PresidentBoris Yeltsin all cryptographic systems except those licensed by FAPSI were forbidden in the Russian Federation. There are widespread rumors that all systems licensed by FAPSI havebackdoors allowing the agency to freely access the encrypted information.
Since 1998 they require that all Internet providers in Russia install their hardware namedSORM (СОРМ – Система Оперативно-Розыскных Мероприятий, System of Operative Investigative Actions) that allows filtering and remote control of internet traffic from FAPSI headquarters. Internet providers must pay for the devices (around US$15,000[1]) directly to FAPSI. Despite the original resistance of Internet providers they complied. It is claimed, however, that no legal document requires ISPs to provide these services free of charge, and some people report that one largeSt. Petersburg ISP toldFSB that it does not decline their request, but is going to bill them appropriately, for which this ISP never saw FSB come back.[2]
One of the tasks of the agency was to protect government websites from getting hacked. Sometime they fail to do it by a very simple scenario - the domain is not paid for in time and becomes a trophy ofcybersquatting.
In January 2004, the election site registered personally forVladimir Putin was not paid for in time and became apornographic site. Eventually the site was closed down.[3]