The agency is concerned about data leaks and the collection of critical information.
In late April, Roskomnadzor's Public Communications Management Center sent a letter to companies from the registry of hosting providers with recommendations for setting up restrictions on access to information on Russian sites by search bots of foreign companies, such as Google, OpenAI, Apple, and others. This is reported by the newspaper "Kommersant", who read the document.
According to the letter, blocking foreign bots is necessary to prevent the collection of data on critical vulnerabilities of Russian resources, indexing Russian data, and analyzing the collected information. Providers (their number in the register for April was 428 companies) are recommended to "conduct a risk analysis in their area of responsibility and, if they are detected, apply the rules for blocking the collection of information by search bots."
The email also contains a list of User-agent identifiers that can be used to distinguish malicious robots from vulnerability scanners (642 identifiers). Interestingly, this list coincides with the publicly available list on GitHub.
Some providers, such as DDoS-Guard, have confirmed receipt of the email and stated that they take note of it. According to them, at the moment these bots are not included in the "register of blocks" of Roskomnadzor.
A representative of a large IT company notes that blocking IDs can negatively affect the stability of IT systems. Nevertheless, he believes that companies that see the risks posed by foreign bots as relevant for themselves will start using the practice of mass blocking them.
The CEO of hosting provider RUVDS admits that the recommendations of Roskomnadzor may become requirements in the future. It warns about possible loss of traffic from search engines, especially Google, which can affect the business of companies. An interlocutor from another hosting provider notes that blocking bots can seriously affect companies in the CIS countries, where Google's popularity is higher than Yandex.
In late April, Roskomnadzor's Public Communications Management Center sent a letter to companies from the registry of hosting providers with recommendations for setting up restrictions on access to information on Russian sites by search bots of foreign companies, such as Google, OpenAI, Apple, and others. This is reported by the newspaper "Kommersant", who read the document.
According to the letter, blocking foreign bots is necessary to prevent the collection of data on critical vulnerabilities of Russian resources, indexing Russian data, and analyzing the collected information. Providers (their number in the register for April was 428 companies) are recommended to "conduct a risk analysis in their area of responsibility and, if they are detected, apply the rules for blocking the collection of information by search bots."
The email also contains a list of User-agent identifiers that can be used to distinguish malicious robots from vulnerability scanners (642 identifiers). Interestingly, this list coincides with the publicly available list on GitHub.
Some providers, such as DDoS-Guard, have confirmed receipt of the email and stated that they take note of it. According to them, at the moment these bots are not included in the "register of blocks" of Roskomnadzor.
A representative of a large IT company notes that blocking IDs can negatively affect the stability of IT systems. Nevertheless, he believes that companies that see the risks posed by foreign bots as relevant for themselves will start using the practice of mass blocking them.
The CEO of hosting provider RUVDS admits that the recommendations of Roskomnadzor may become requirements in the future. It warns about possible loss of traffic from search engines, especially Google, which can affect the business of companies. An interlocutor from another hosting provider notes that blocking bots can seriously affect companies in the CIS countries, where Google's popularity is higher than Yandex.
