An annual meeting of the Netoscope research and development project participants took place on November 1. The roundtable meeting involved representatives of Netoscope companies and organizations responsible for detecting violations on the internet in cooperation with Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ.
Coordination Center Director Andrey Vorobyev opened the meeting. He noted that research and development cooperation is expanding and several more organizations joined the project this year. Vorobyev stressed how important is that the Federal Supervision Service for Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) is involved. “We don’t have to get, say, ten companies involved in Netoscope or a list of competent organizations. But we always welcome new members. It is important to both expand the range or organizations and the scope of their competencies,” Andrey Vorobyev said. He also said that in the future, Netoscope is likely to include several foreign organizations, which will bring the project to an international level.
Netoscope Technical Director Pavel Khramtsov spoke about the research carried out within the project. The research found that malicious code is most frequently distributed through technology-themed websites while phishing is mainly a problem for business websites; spam is circulated through entertainment and pharmaceutical websites. The data will allow the Technical Center of Internet, the project’s technology platform, to take rapid action to increase the stability of the domain name system and Runet in general.
Head of the Department for Special Projects at the Coordination Center Yevgeny Pankov spoke about the Netoscope website and presented statistics of the project. Pankov described at length how user complaints regarding websites in the .RU and .РФ domains are processed. The project receives 40 to 50 complaints every month; each is processed and, if necessary, forwarded to a competent organization or law enforcement agency.
The roundtable meeting participants also shared results of their own research. Nikolai Dosh, a representative of the MasterCard Members’ Association, spoke about online banking fraud. His presentation sparked a lively discussion. All participants agreed that it is essential to distribute information not only on the combat against cybercrime but also on criminal liability for cybercrime. “These days, a cybercriminal is a teenager under 16 who believes he won’t be caught or, if he gets caught, nothing will happen to him. We have to explain to children and their parents that virtual crimes are punished in the same way as in real life,” one of the participants commented.
At the end of the roundtable meeting, it was announced, another company, BI.ZONE, was added to the list of competent organizations. A cooperation agreement between CCTLD and BI.ZONE was signed the day before, and CCTLD Director Andrey Vorobyev discussed the importance of this event. “We have worked with BI.ZONE since the beginning of summer. The company is actively involved in Netoscope and its participation as a competent organization is the logical continuation of our work together.”
“It is not a secret that phishing is one of the most widespread methods used by cybercriminals to illegally obtain private data. Rapidly detecting and blocking sources of malicious content a significant number of cybercrimes. We would like to thank the team of the Coordination Center for the opportunity to help fight fraud,” BI.ZONE Director Dmitry Samartsev said.
Andrey Vorobyev noted that phishing is the number one violation on the internet. “These websites account for 25% of all illicit websites. They require a prompt response. That is why we believe it is particularly important to expand cooperation with organizations like BI.ZONE. I’m sure their contribution will be considerable.”
