On April 25, 2019, the 13th International Forum on International Cybersecurity Problems came to a close in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. A delegation of the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ took part in it and gave talks during several thematic sessions.
The forum organized by the Russian National International Cybersecurity Association aims to expand the dialogue between Russian and foreign experts on issues related to forming a system to sustain peace and safety in the global information community. The event was attended by over 100 experts from 18 countries, and over 60 talks were given on various aspects of how to establish cooperation in fighting security threats to information and communications technologies used by commercial and non-profit organizations, government bodies and ordinary users.
Coordination Center Director Andrey Vorobyev gave a talk titled “A responsible approach to developing the DNS system as an important element of the internet’s public nucleus.” He noted that the Garmisch forum is rightfully considered a leading cybersecurity event: “The Garmisch-Partenkirchen forum is like the Davos of information security; it is an important element of the international cybersecurity dialogue. The plenary session was mostly dedicated to countries’ recently shaken confidence in information and communications technology. Trust is the foundation of all social institutions. The technology’s development was based on trust. Today Russian approaches to international information security focus on measures to promote trust. The Garmisch forum aims to search for avenues of prospective cooperation in areas where all stakeholders agree but have no working tool to achieve global goals for the development of an information society. We thank the National International Cybersecurity Association for this opportunity to discuss issues related to the development of the DNS system as an important element of the internet’s public nucleus and the national domain registry’s role in educating internet users at a high expert level.”
Coordination Center Project Manager Tatyana Novikova also gave a talk on “The national registry’s role in educating internet users.” The forum participants praised the center’s social and educational projects aimed at improving users’ digital competence, including in the area of information security.
The forum participants had a lively discussion of the results of an international research project aimed at studying the practical use of rules, regulations and principles of countries’ responsible behavior in the communications technology environment. Experts from the Institute for Information Security Issues at Lomonosov Moscow State University, the EastWest Institute (US), Cybersecurity Institute (Estonia) and the ICT for Peace Foundation (Switzerland) were involved in the project. The experts managed to identify the main problems preventing the application of international law in the ICT environment.
The forum participants agreed that in order to create an international cybersecurity system based on countries’ sovereignty it was necessary to give greater attention to studying legal and technical aspects of the delimitation and demarcation of countries’ responsibility zones in the ICT environment. After this task is solved, the establishment of a system to receive objective information on dangerous incidents in the ICT environment as well as an attribution system for countries involved can be launched. This base can be used to provide for the application of the UN Charter’s provisions on the peaceful settlement of international disputes to incidents in the ICT environment.
In his closing remarks, President of the National Association for International Cybersecurity Vladislav Sherstyuk noted its positive influence on the expert community’s expanding cooperation to establish an international cybersecurity system.
