Internet activities. In 1994 it bought major Russian internet provider of that time RELCOM. 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 President Boris 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 have backdoors allowing the agency to freely access the encrypted information. Since 1998 they require that all Internet providers in Russia install their hardware named SORM (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) 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 large St. Petersburg ISP told FSB that it does not decline their request, but is going to bill them appropriately, for which this ISP never saw FSB come back. Mishaps of the agency 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 of cybersquatting. In January 2004, the election site registered personally for Vladimir Putin was not paid for in time and became a pornographic site. Eventually the site was closed down. See also Special Communications Service of Russia (Spetssviaz) Federal Protective Service (Russia) Federal Security Service (Russia) National Security Agency (US) GCHQ (UK) Communications Security Establishment (Canada) References External links English FAPSI Operations - by Federation of American Scientists Jonathan Littell, "The Security Organs of the Russian Federation. A Brief History 1991-2004" Psan Publishing House 2006. Lourdes SIGINT facility in Cuba, part 1 Lourdes SIGINT facility in Cuba, part 2 Cyber Warfare and Telecommunications Espionage Russian KGB Russian intelligence agencies Federal Security Service Russia Cryptography organizations