The main topic of the period is Cheburnet. Russia started enforcing fines for logging in to online services through foreign accounts, such as Gmail, Apple ID or Telegram. The requirement itself appeared back in 2023, but now violations are punished: individuals face fines from 10,000 to 100,000 rubles, companies from 500,000 to 2.8 million rubles. The rules cover sites and apps with a personal account: online stores, education platforms, SaaS services. It is important to understand the difference: if email is used simply as a login or to send a code, that is not a violation. A violation is when a foreign service itself confirms the user's identity, for example via a "Sign in with Google" button. Businesses are advised to move users in advance to login by phone number, username and password, or through domestic services. Recommendation technologies are regulated separately: if a service shows different content to different people based on their interests, it must openly explain how this works. For an XConnect user this means that familiar login methods and personalization in Russian services will gradually change.
The second notable news is that 5G officially launched in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg, and the network is available from all major operators. On Android the 5G icon may appear soon, while iPhone owners will have to wait for Apple's decision.
Users massively complained about outages of Steam, Discord and FaceIt — mostly about no connection to the server. It is noted that sometimes even Cheburnet Cheburnet tools do not help. All these services are in one way or another connected to online games and esports.
Two technical pieces came out on the topic of VPN and connection security. The first is a detailed breakdown of AmneziaWG updates from version 2.0 to 3.1: the protocol encrypted packet headers and added random trailers, and "just updating the binaries" turned out to be insufficient — some parameters must match on the server and client. The second is a practical test of whether the MAX messenger can see your VPN if it is configured on a router rather than on the computer. The experiment showed that the client reads Windows system identifiers and proxy settings, but no evidence was found that this data is sent to a server.
On the vulnerabilities front, Microsoft released a record September patch package — 997 fixes, 112 of them critical. The company links this to a shift toward AI tools for finding bugs. There was also a breakdown of how a smartphone collects data even without internet: sensors work offline, and what is collected goes online at the first connection. A trojan is also mentioned that can transmit data through nearby infected devices.
There was not much data for the period, so the digest turned out short. The main thing for an XConnect user to keep in mind: Cheburnet rules are getting stricter, and the ways services handle login and personalization will keep changing.