FSB urges tighter punishment for using WhatsApp in state agencies
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) is set to prepare a bill that would allow civil servants to be fired for using non-certified internet messengers such as Viber or WhatsApp at work, saying the apps potentially threaten the information security of state agencies.
The decision to charge the security service with the task was taken earlier this week at a working meeting in the presidential administration, attended by representatives of the FSB, the Communications Ministry, the Ministry of Economic Development and other state agencies, Izvestia daily reported on Friday.
The head of the working group, Ilya Massukh, told reporters that he and his colleagues had agreed that Russian law should be amended to rule out the use of non-certified programs and applications that use encoding for working purposes in state agencies. He named WhatsApp, Viber and Telegram as examples of such software. Massukh also said that the future FSB bill would punish any violation of the ban with disciplinary measures, including dismissal from state service.
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