RZD Trunk Quantum Network Obtains FSTEC Attestation and Enters External Commercial Market
RZD’s trunk quantum network has successfully completed attestation by the Federal Service for Technical and Export Control (FSTEC). The official document confirms that the infrastructure fully complies with the regulatory requirements applicable to information systems of the second class of protection under Russian legislation.
This certification is far more than a formal document for RZD. It grants the company the legal right to provide commercial services based on its quantum network to third-party organizations, ranging from banks and industrial enterprises to medical institutions and transport companies. The primary focus of these services is the protection of critically important data.
Quantum communications offer a fundamentally higher level of security compared with traditional encryption. Any attempt to intercept the encryption keys is immediately detected because interference with the quantum channel changes the state of the transmitted particles, making the intrusion impossible to conceal. This capability is especially valuable for owners of critical information infrastructure objects, for whom conventional “complex passwords” are no longer considered sufficient protection.
The technology is already being actively tested in the financial sector. Among the organizations currently piloting quantum channels are the Bank of Russia, the Federal Treasury, the Financial University, and several of Russia’s largest banks. Potential future clients also include companies from the oil-and-gas industry, manufacturing, healthcare, and transportation sectors.
According to the Ministry of Digital Development, quantum communication technology has now reached a sufficiently high level of maturity. Further expansion of the quantum network until 2030 has been incorporated into the relevant departmental roadmap and the national project “Data Economy”.
Consequently, RZD is gradually evolving beyond its traditional role as a carrier of passengers and freight. The company is positioning itself as an operator of secure digital highways, where, in addition to conventional rail traffic, quantum keys will also travel along its infrastructure.
Related articles
Protecting Data Centers from Kinetic and Cyber Attacks: What Regulators Worldwide Are Proposing
InfoWatch experts have updated their April report on data center resilience, highlighting how physical and cyber threats now directly threaten business continuity and national security. Regulators in the United States, European Union, and Russia are treating data centers as strategic infrastructure requiring layered defenses that combine physical hardening, geographic distribution, and strict cybersecurity controls. The United States has launched the Cyberstrategy for America 2026 emphasizing offensive operations, Zero Trust modernization, and supply-chain restrictions. The European Union is implementing ProtectEU and the Cyber Solidarity Act with real-time threat sharing and mandatory resilience standards under DORA. Russia is advancing technological sovereignty targets, new siting rules for data centers, and Presidential Decree No. 604 that enables temporary state management of inadequately protected critical facilities. The report also notes growing recognition that attacks on data centers can constitute acts of aggression under the Tallinn Manual.
US Department of Homeland Security Orders Federal Agencies to Remove DeepSeek Products
The US Department of Homeland Security issued an order on October 19 requiring federal civilian agencies to cease purchasing products from DeepSeek and to remove related technology from government systems. The directive, published the following day, targets Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence, its affiliates, and any third-party products or services built on DeepSeek implementations. The measure stems from the Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act of 2018 and follows a recommendation by the Federal Acquisition Security Council, though no specific incidents or evidence were detailed in the notice. The restriction applies only to federal environments and does not prohibit private sector or individual use outside government systems. No removal deadline was set, and the document does not name the signing authority. The order is filed under docket DHS-2026-0628 with the CISA implementation team listed as the contact point.
AKIT Requests Temporary Permission for Russian Companies to Transfer Personal Data Abroad After Data Center Incidents
The Association of Internet Trade Companies (AKIT) has sent a formal letter to Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin proposing a temporary exemption from strict data localization rules. The measure would allow affected companies to move critical systems and Russian citizens' personal data to data centers in friendly countries when domestic infrastructure is unavailable due to accidents or damage. Members including Ozon, Wildberries, Cooper, and Yandex Market argue that services must continue operating even if Russian facilities are compromised. The proposed special regime would apply only after an officially confirmed incident, require compliance with information security standards, and end no later than March 1, 2028. After recovery, companies would be required to return to normal data processing within Russia. Expert Alexey Muntyan noted that the mechanism activates only after incidents occur and questioned whether countries should be selected based on data protection levels rather than political alignment.
Anthropic Model Reconstructs NSA Seeds for NIST Elliptic Curves in Under 30 Minutes
An internal Anthropic research model traced the origins of the five seeds used by the NSA to generate the NIST elliptic curves P-192, P-224, P-256, P-384, and P-521. The discovery resolves a 25-year-old question that arose when the curves were standardized in FIPS 186-2 for ECDSA in 2000. Researchers combined analysis of 1990s random number generators, 34 generator-output combinations, and lattice reduction techniques to identify lrand48 initialized with Unix timestamps from May 1997 to April 1998. The P-256 seed corresponds to the 1842nd candidate from a run started on 16 August 1997, and example seeds from ANSI X9.62 follow the same pattern. The work does not demonstrate any cryptographic break or backdoor in the curves and does not recommend changes to production systems. Several questions remain open, including the seed for curve B-163 and the reason certain candidate values were discarded.