Russia demands apple to submit the source code

Just few days after the announcement that Russian government will pay almost 4 million ruble (approximately equal to $111,000) to the one who can devise a reliable technology to decrypt data sent over the Tor, now the government wants something which is really tough.

APPLE & SAP, HAND OVER YOUR SOURCE CODES

Russian government has asked Apple to provide the access to the company’s source code in an effort to assure its iOS devices and Macintoshes aren’t vulnerable to spying. Not just this, the government has demanded the same from SAP as well, which is an enterprise software that manages business operations and customer relationships.

Russia proposed this idea last Tuesday when Communications Minister Nikolai Nikiforov met SAP’s Russian managing director Vyacheslav Orekhov, and Apple’s Russian general manager Peter Engrob Nielsen, and suggested that both the companies give Russian government access to their source code.

Russia has put out a tender on its official government procurement website for anyone who can identify Tor users. The reward of $114,000 seems pretty cheap for this capability. And we now get to debate whether 1) Russia cannot currently deaonymize Tor users, or 2) Russia can, and this is a ruse to make us think they can't.