How does it influence the hosting and cybersecurity industry in Romania?
The law will require:
– Hosting provider to intercept communications, provide customer data and decrypt data if necessary, also at their own expense.
– IP resource hosting providers and electronic communication providers “to grant, at the request of authorized bodies, under the conditions of this law, the decrypted content of communications transited in their networks”
But what would this cause for customers in reality?
– decrypt encrypted content. So for example SSL/TLS based data has to be decrypted on request. In case the provider has access towards your key (for shared and managed hosting this is always the case, the same for most DDOS filter)
– provide details about website visitor (IP log)
How will be FlokiNET affected?
The law does include also foreign provider operating IP / network in Romania. However we and our legal team does clearly sees the proposed law as illegal under Romanian constition as well as under EU law. All passwords, decryption keys, SSL keys etc are managed by FlokiNET ehf Iceland and handing them over would violate Icelandic law. We are more then willing to discuss this in court and will not cooperate in any matter that would break Icelandic law.
Customer data remains safe?
Yes, it does! All our server are encrypted, without the keys stored safely in iceland no data can be decrypted.
Should i move my hosting / server towards a different location?
There is no need for this, in case our legal opinion changes or the law becomes permanent we will adress our customers.
What action will take FlokiNET to ensure customer data safety?Since FlokiNET was founded in 2012 customer data protection is our DNA.
This includes the encryption of all data and several technical and legal measurements to make sure this data remains safe. However in the case the law will become active in Romania we will immidiate challenge this in court and are confident to appeal the law.
Conclusion for our customers:
No changes or worries required for now. In case the situation changes we will let you know.
What can i do?
In our previous blog post we mentioned that the Romanian Senate is due to vote on a piece of legislation that severely crippled the ability that hosting companies have to provide secure services to you, the customers. If you want to take a stand against this, we urge you to send a letter to the Commissions inside the Romania Senate, as well as the representatives of Romanian political parties.
You can use the letter below as a template, add your own position to it, and send it. We recommend you act sooner rather than later, since the vote on this piece of legislation is scheduled, most probably, for Monday, February 14th.
Think of it as sending a Valentine’s Day letter to a secure Internet. 😉
The blog entry with the background: