Long before Edward Snowden worked for the NSA — before PRISM and Wikileaks — there was SORM, the Russian system of intercepting and monitoring communications. In the hands of a dictator, SORM has become a powerful weapon for the Kremlin to target his opponents both at home and abroad. Bloomberg has even questions whether Russia’s intrusion is so deep that the Kremlin maybe using a popular anti-virus software Kaspersky Labs, to scan foreign hard drives.
This week, Interpreter’s managing editor James Miller and Boston College professor Matt Sienkiewicz are joined by Andrei Soldatov, co-author of a new book, The Red Web: The Struggle Between Russia’s Digital Dictators and The New Online Revolutionaries.
The talk then turns to events in France and their aftermath. How are politics destroying both progress and effective discussion on solutions in Syria? How should we handle refugees? What is Russia’s role in this process?
Additional Links:
– The Red Web: The Struggle Between Russia’s Digital Dictators and The New Online Revolutionaries
– The Company Securing Your Internet Has Close Ties to Russian Spies
Click here to hear our previous podcasts. You now also have the option to subscribe to our RSS feed and to follow our podcast on iTunes.
Audio for today’s podcast was edited by Maximillien Inhoff.