TSPU - Russia's Firewall and Defending Against Digital Repression

Explore Russia's sophisticated internet censorship system, the TSPU, in this DEF CON 33 conference talk that examines how modern computational advances have transformed digital repression capabilities. Learn about the evolution from China's Great Firewall (GFW) of the early 2000s to today's more powerful and strategically positioned censorship infrastructure. Discover how Russia's TSPU represents a state-of-the-art system that rivals the GFW while potentially posing greater threats to users through its in-path design closer to end-hosts, including residential modems and data center connections. Understand the implications of Russia's government-mandated certificate authority requirements for Russian software and how this combines with the TSPU's positioning to create significant security risks for users interacting with Russian data centers and applications. Examine the technical aspects of how increased computational efficiency has enabled more granular and targeted censorship attacks compared to earlier systems that operated deeper in network infrastructure. Gain insights into research findings that have identified potential circumvention methods and learn about emerging tools that could represent the future of digital resistance against authoritarian internet controls.