One of the main topics of the IT+Sovereignty forum, which took place today in Moscow, was cyber security. The roundtable discussion, The Role of Information Security in Ensuring Sovereignty, chaired by Director of the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ Andrey Vorobyev, focused on various aspects of information security and the protection of key network infrastructure.
Deputy Minister of Communications and Mass Media Alexei Sokolov stressed that the Internet is one of the main drivers of economic growth, and Runet infrastructure security is one of the state’s priorities. He also spoke about the task that the state faces of training experts in information security: “We’ve increased the number of free places in the Computer Science major at universities by almost 70 percent, and now we’re going to admit more students to the Information Security major.”
InfoWatch General Director Natalya Kasperskaya spoke about what IT sovereignty means for the country’s information security: “Today we see three levels of security: personal security, business security and state security, each of which are important for national sovereignty, including when collecting the personal data of citizens, ensuring the safe use of social networks, protecting against cyber-espionage or providing infrastructure security.”
Andrei Yarnykh from the Kaspersky Lab spoke about the vulnerability of critical infrastructure and the development of malware in the modern world: “Malware developers have the same funds as large IT companies, and this can become a ‘cyber arms race.’ Cyber arms have an enormous destructive capability, and we are no longer seeing simply risk on the net, we are seeing real damage.” MSK-IX General Director Yelena Voronina stressed the need to involve technical experts in the development of industry documents: “The infrastructure is the foundation of the entire Internet system and thus should be treated with respect and care, otherwise it can break down. It is necessary to create a working platform, where all participants could contribute to the development of industry documents. It is necessary to create documents relating to infrastructure and then carry out a technical examination. There are few experts in this area, so we need to involve them in the work and take their views into account.”
ICANN Vice-President Mikhail Yakushev told the participants about how IT sovereignty is seen by the largest international organization responsible for the stable operation of the global Internet infrastructure: “A particular country cannot have its individual sovereignty, as sovereignty is based on international principles and international documents.”
The roundtable speakers also included Dmitry Ippolitov from RU-CERT, Georgy Gritsai from the Open Network Association, Oleg Demidov from PIR-Center, Yury Linkov from the Analytical Center for the Government of the Russian Federation, and Alexei Yefremov from the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.
An expanded meeting of the Coordination Center’s committees was held after the roundtable discussion. The heads and members of the committees discussed the results of the IT+Sovereignty forum, preparations for the ENOG 11 conferences in Moscow and ICANN 56 in Helsinki, and the tasks of each committee.
At the meeting, Pavel Khramtsov from MSK-IX spoke about the implementation of IPv6 in Russia. This is a priority for the center’s Infrastructure Committee. The participants reached the conclusion that providers do not have technical difficulties in introducing IPv6. However, a business model that makes investing in IPv6 profitable is yet to be proposed.
Sergei Kopylov, Deputy Director of the Coordination Center, presented draft amendments to the Rules of .RU and .РФ Domain Name Registration, submitted for discussion by the center's Legal Regulation Committee. The amendments include the expansion of the list of grounds to remove domain name delegation by a confirmed instance of violating public interests or conflicts against public morals in a domain name.
At the ICANN Meeting to be held in Helsinki in June, Cyrillic mail will be one of the issues on the agenda. This issue is also being addressed by the Internet Governance Committee, so the Coordination Center’s delegation plans to actively participate in discussing this problem at the ICANN Meeting. ICANN Vice-President and member of the Internet Governance Committee Mikhail Yakushev spoke not only about the June ICANN Meeting in Helsinki, but also about the November ICANN Meeting in Hyderabad, and invited everyone to participate in these events.
The participants in the expanded meeting exchanged views on current issues and agreed that such expanded meetings should be held regularly.
