The Ministry of Digital Development equated the content delivery service to hosting.
The Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation considered that commercial CDN providers (providers of content delivery services) should fulfill the same obligations as web hosting companies, Vedomosti writes. We are talking about a geographically distributed infrastructure of servers that store cached data and provide accelerated delivery of digital content to users.
As media sources explained, the Ministry of Digital Development sent relevant explanations to Russian IT companies that provide commercial CDN services. According to these clarifications, such companies are now required to implement SORM in order to meet the requirements for protecting information and installing technical means to counter threats.
Previously, such strict requirements were not applied for CDN providers. Moreover, the very concept of "content delivery service" has not been defined anywhere in Russian legislation. According to sources, a representative of Beeline in January 2024 requested clarification from the Ministry of Digital Development whether to consider CDN hosting, to which he received an affirmative answer.
In accordance with Federal Law No. 149-FZ "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection", a hosting provider is understood as a person engaged in providing computing power for placing information in an information system that is constantly connected to the Internet, according to the response of Acting Director of the Cybersecurity Department of the Ministry of Digital Development Evgeny Khasin to Vimpelcom. "When providing a content delivery service (CDN), the service owner provides computing power to place information in an information system that is constantly connected to the Internet, and therefore the persons indicated in your letter are hosting providers," the letter says. The regulator's response does not specify which specific individuals this applies to.
At the same time, the position of the Ministry of Digital Development emphasizes that "the letter is informational and explanatory in nature" and "does not contain legal norms or general rules specifying regulatory requirements, and is not a regulatory legal act."
The analytical agency Rustelecom estimated the Russian CDN market at 2.5 billion rubles in 2022, CNews wrote. Market indicators for 2023 have not yet been evaluated by any of the analytical companies. The market leader is Ngenix (part of the Rostelecom Data Center Group). In September 2023 Vimpelcom has become the owner of a 95% stake in CDNvideo, the second largest player in the Russian CDN market by revenue.
The third position in the market is occupied by Megafon. In fourth place was Edgeocenter, created by former employees of G-Core Labs, which left Russia. Among the major players in the Russian market, Rustelecom's research lists Selectel, VK, MTS and Yandex, as well as foreign players Akamai, CloudFlare, CDN77, who left Russia in 2022. Another major player in the market was Google. In May 2022, the company notified its partners about the termination of contracts for servicing Google Global Cache (GGC) servers, which were used to speed up the download of Google services, including YouTube content, RBC wrote.
According to experts, the new requirements apply specifically to commercial CDNs, but companies like Yandex and VK that develop CDNs for their own needs will not be affected. Such companies are already organizers of information dissemination and fulfill their obligations under SORM.
It is expected that for large CDN providers, the cost of installing SORM may amount to tens of millions of rubles, and for small players it will become unprofitable. Earlier, the media reported that Russian operators are working to expand the bandwidth of their CDNs to replace Google networks.
The Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation considered that commercial CDN providers (providers of content delivery services) should fulfill the same obligations as web hosting companies, Vedomosti writes. We are talking about a geographically distributed infrastructure of servers that store cached data and provide accelerated delivery of digital content to users.
As media sources explained, the Ministry of Digital Development sent relevant explanations to Russian IT companies that provide commercial CDN services. According to these clarifications, such companies are now required to implement SORM in order to meet the requirements for protecting information and installing technical means to counter threats.
Previously, such strict requirements were not applied for CDN providers. Moreover, the very concept of "content delivery service" has not been defined anywhere in Russian legislation. According to sources, a representative of Beeline in January 2024 requested clarification from the Ministry of Digital Development whether to consider CDN hosting, to which he received an affirmative answer.
In accordance with Federal Law No. 149-FZ "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection", a hosting provider is understood as a person engaged in providing computing power for placing information in an information system that is constantly connected to the Internet, according to the response of Acting Director of the Cybersecurity Department of the Ministry of Digital Development Evgeny Khasin to Vimpelcom. "When providing a content delivery service (CDN), the service owner provides computing power to place information in an information system that is constantly connected to the Internet, and therefore the persons indicated in your letter are hosting providers," the letter says. The regulator's response does not specify which specific individuals this applies to.
At the same time, the position of the Ministry of Digital Development emphasizes that "the letter is informational and explanatory in nature" and "does not contain legal norms or general rules specifying regulatory requirements, and is not a regulatory legal act."
The analytical agency Rustelecom estimated the Russian CDN market at 2.5 billion rubles in 2022, CNews wrote. Market indicators for 2023 have not yet been evaluated by any of the analytical companies. The market leader is Ngenix (part of the Rostelecom Data Center Group). In September 2023 Vimpelcom has become the owner of a 95% stake in CDNvideo, the second largest player in the Russian CDN market by revenue.
The third position in the market is occupied by Megafon. In fourth place was Edgeocenter, created by former employees of G-Core Labs, which left Russia. Among the major players in the Russian market, Rustelecom's research lists Selectel, VK, MTS and Yandex, as well as foreign players Akamai, CloudFlare, CDN77, who left Russia in 2022. Another major player in the market was Google. In May 2022, the company notified its partners about the termination of contracts for servicing Google Global Cache (GGC) servers, which were used to speed up the download of Google services, including YouTube content, RBC wrote.
According to experts, the new requirements apply specifically to commercial CDNs, but companies like Yandex and VK that develop CDNs for their own needs will not be affected. Such companies are already organizers of information dissemination and fulfill their obligations under SORM.
It is expected that for large CDN providers, the cost of installing SORM may amount to tens of millions of rubles, and for small players it will become unprofitable. Earlier, the media reported that Russian operators are working to expand the bandwidth of their CDNs to replace Google networks.
