An IT breakfast “Innovative Economy: From Digits To Data, From Technological Sovereignty To Technological Leadership” was held at St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. It was attended by representatives of the largest IT companies and federal executive authorities, as well as representatives of the expert community. The organizers of the event are the Russian Association of Electronic Communications (RAEC), ANO Digital Economy, Russoft with the support of the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of Russia.
During the breakfast, moderated by RAEC Director Sergey Grebennikov, the speakers discussed what businesses should do today to further develop the digital economy and when to expect technological leadership.
The Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation Maksut Shadayev identified 5 main areas that concern representatives of the IT industry and on which it is necessary to work in the near future. Maksut Shadayev named security issues as one of the current areas. He noted that situations of identity theft, especially banking data, require systemic solutions, and there are many simple measures that will help reduce the level of fraud and increase security. It is planned to further discuss the provision of security measures with the Bank of Russia and their prompt implementation.
Head of the Office of the President of the Russian Federation for the Development of Information and Communication Technologies and Communications Infrastructure Tatyana Matveeva also noted the great importance of security issues:
“I would like to once again focus on issues related to information security and the pressure our state is now experiencing from the outside. And in this context, the protection of personal data is primarily the protection of our citizens, especially young people and children. We all must think about the interests of our country and citizens. There was a phrase here that we are introducing technologies that make our people happier. I would like to echo these words. We must create technologies, taking into account the interests of society, for the scientific and technological development of our country. We are always ready to discuss problematic issues with the industry to find joint solutions.”
Director of the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ Andrey Vorobyev took part in the IT breakfast. Speaking at the event, he noted that in recent years, with the expansion of the domain space, the trend towards an increase in the number of threats on the network associated with the domain abuse, in particular, phishing, has continued. And this trend is not only Russian, but also worldwide, which is confirmed by the number of requests sent through the Domain Patrol.
“To protect users, it is necessary to promote all possible solutions from infrastructural to organizational, from legislative to self-regulatory. The Coordination Center plans to continue to do everything possible in technical, organizational and educational areas to maintain the security of national domain zones and the entire Internet,” Andrey Vorobyev said.
He also said that.RU and .РФ are developing against the background of global stagnation of the domain market. Nevertheless, the security problem remains:
“The volume of phishing in the world has tripled in 2023, and, strictly speaking, our numbers are almost the same.” That is why there is an urgent need to adopt a bill that would raise the status of the rules for registering domain names in .RU and .РФ, which will make it possible to take serious measures to combat phishing at the legislative level."
Chairman of the State Duma Committee of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications Alexander Khinshtein noted that this bill is a good initiative and promised that he will be able to implement it in the near future. Also during his speech, Alexander touched upon the problem of processing personal data:
“If there are more than 5 million legal entities in the country, including individual entrepreneurs, then each of them is a personal data operator, not to mention kindergartens, schools, and hotels. It is obvious that half of these operators will not be able to properly protect this user data. In this regard, a study is being prepared jointly with Roskomnadzor and the Ministry of Digital Development – we propose to introduce a category of special operators for processing personal data.”
Andrey Kuzmichev, CEO of the largest Russian domain name registrar RU-CENTER, also spoke about security.
“If we talk about users in a broad sense, yes, everything is moving to SaaS. Very convenient, turnkey service. Does the user know what is under the hood of this SaaS service? Where is the personal data of his clients that he trusts to this SaaS service located? In Russia, abroad, how are they protected, by whom are they processed, how protected are they? No, he doesn't. We looked, took the .RU domain zone, took those domains that are hosted outside the Russian Federation. 56% of such domains are SaaS services such as website builders, “sites for photographers in 5 minutes,” and so on. When and in the event of any shutdowns, blocking, voluntary withdrawal of foreign players from our market, who will suffer? Users who de facto do not even understand what risks they are exposed to will suffer,” Andrey Kuzmichev said.
According to experts, for the successful implementation and stimulation of data technologies in various sectors of the economy, it is necessary to resolve a number of issues, such as the integration of artificial intelligence, the development of platforms and ecosystems, research and training for ФШ. In addition, regulation and ethics in the field of data economics, the creation of infrastructure for processing, storing, collecting and transmitting data, as well as information security and other aspects are also important.
Watch the IT-Breakfast video here.
