IIDF started searching for a protected messenger for officials

The Internet Initiatives Development Fund, together with Rostelecom and Tele2, started searching for a protected messenger for officials, Vedomosti reports .

Back in 2013, the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, suggested addressing this issue, promised to create a fund for “important projects” and connected the Ministry of Finance and at that time the head of the department, German Gref, personally. After focusing on this issue, the main contractor, FRIA, was selected, and 6 billion rubles were allocated from unnamed sources, which were planned to be divided between approximately 400 Russian start-ups.
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IIDF focuses on government agencies and large businesses, as the main intended consumer. However, on the basis of the requirements put forward to the software, it is difficult to call it “messenger”. In the project, the “instant messenger” will contain not only the possibility of correspondence, but also audio and video communication, the possibility of joint work on documents and other functions. Particular attention is paid to the certification of the Russian special services and the use of encryption algorithms domestic development. According to the estimates of FRIA, Rostelecom and Tele2, the possible audience of the product reaches 20 million copies, provided that 60 million people use messengers daily in the country.

A possible increase in activity in this direction after several years of lull can be attributed to the hacking of a personal email gmail-box by Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich in 2014 and the increasing attacks on politicians accounts around the world.

Now four main candidates for this project are being considered: Titanium, Flodium, Sibrus and SyncCloud. As stated by the co-founder of “Flodium” Sergey Kravtsov, there is no clear technical specification for the development of the “state” messenger.

It also considers two options for making money for developers: a full buyout of the platform, which can cost the treasury up to several million dollars, or the option of a subscription fee with a government-provided clientele and product support. Then the platform will be provided free of charge. While there is a discussion of the option of work on a subscription.

It is worth noting that, according to FRIA, “Rostelecom” and Tele2 only provided an expert assessment of possible performers. At the same time, Tele2 is also considered as one of the contractors for the project, the main shareholder of which is Rostelecom.

Business representatives are not completely sure of the need for such a development. A lot of enterprises, both public and private, have long been successfully using foreign instant messengers and workflow systems, for example, Skype for business, WhatsApp and EMC.

Representatives of “potential consumers” note that the next instant messenger in its pure form is not particularly needed, but the built-in cross-platform support for workflow with other systems could be really useful. Also, the success of the new messenger can be expected in the presence of a global directory of counterparties. In the meantime, the domestic software has no fundamental differences with its proven foreign counterparts.

IIDF and the four companies mentioned above are not the only ones willing to receive state. order. The Institute for Internet Development, the Ministry of Communications and the company Mail.ru, which also expressed a desire to participate in the struggle to get a contract to create a messenger for officials, drew attention to this area. However, in the concept they are considering, the messenger will provide only the possibility of correspondence, audio and video communications.

It is possible that the developers and regulatory authorities will still listen to the opinion of the business and create a viable and competitive product, against the background of foreign developments.