Topic
Sberbank
Digital Surveillance in Your Pocket: Audit Uncovers Tracking and Weak Cryptography in 11 Top Russian Android Apps
Privacy & Surveillance
Metascan Confirms Limited Data Breach After Two-Minute Telegram Bot Compromise
Data Breaches & Leaks
Why Legitimate Russian Websites Fail to Load With or Without VPN: TSPU RKN Blocking and MinTsifry Certificates Explained
Policy & RegulationRussian Ministry Certificates Enable Potential State MITM on Foreign Domains
Russian companies facing sanctions have started adopting root certificates issued by the Ministry of Digital Development and Communications to maintain HTTPS access after commercial CAs revoked or refused to renew their certificates. Installing these Ministry certificates allows browsers to trust sites using Russian national CAs but also creates a pathway for man-in-the-middle interception by state-controlled entities. The article details a concrete threat model where a government-linked operator could use the Ministry root to generate on-the-fly certificates for any domain, including foreign services outside Russian jurisdiction. To mitigate this, the author demonstrates how to re-sign the Ministry root with OpenSSL nameConstraints limited to .ru, .su, and .рф domains only. Tests on macOS with Homebrew show that the constrained certificate still validates Russian banking sites such as online.sberbank.ru while correctly rejecting attempts to validate foreign domains like sberbank.com. The technique requires users to maintain their own cross-signed root and never rely on pre-installed Ministry or Yandex Browser roots for full protection.
Sberbank to Terminate Currency and Multicurrency Visa Cards from September 2026 Despite Prior Extensions to 2030
Sberbank announced it will cease servicing currency and multicurrency Visa cards starting September 1, 2026, including those whose validity was previously extended until 2030. The bank notified customers via SMS and advised them to close affected cards in advance through the Sberbank Online app or at a branch to avoid access issues with their funds. This decision aligns with ongoing sanctions against Russia, import substitution policies, and the gradual removal of Visa and Mastercard from the Russian market. Central Bank officials, including Elvira Nabiullina and Alla Bakina, have confirmed that international payment systems must exit Russia, with the share of Visa and Mastercard already reduced to less than 17 percent. The National System of Payment Cards continues to incur costs supporting legacy cards while promoting domestic alternatives such as Mir. Customers are encouraged to transfer remaining balances to other accounts to maintain uninterrupted access to their money.