People attending events on November 14 and 15 discussed ways of generating synergy between the state, media outlets and society for raising nationwide digital literacy levels. Specialists from the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ were invited to take part.
Rossiya Segodnya International Media Group hosted the 3rd Children’s Health and Safety forum, organized by the National Center for Missing and Affected Children. Addressing the participants, Viktoria Bunchuk, the Coordination Center’s social project manager, discussed collaboration between major IT companies and NGOs in the field of cybersecurity research and implementing educational projects. According to Bunchuk, the Center has established the institution of competent organizations having the required knowledge and skills for detecting and exposing online resources with illegal content, collecting and providing information about phishing incidents, unauthorized access to information systems and spreading malware from domain names in the .RU/.РФ domains. These organizations, including the well-known Kaspersky Lab, F.A.C.C.T., Yandex, VK, Rostelecom Solar, the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) and others, are working jointly within the framework of two projects, specifically, the Netoscope information-analytical resource and Domain Patrol.
“All of you can help rid Runet of malware,” Bunchuk told forum participants, primarily, cadets from the Russian Emergencies Ministry’s academies. “For example, the доменныйпатруль.рфwebsite has a section listing hotline phone-in services of our competent organizations. If you detect any online violation (spam, phishing website, viral activity on any website) or if you fall prey to scammers, feel free to ask any of these divisions for assistance. The Domain Check section makes it possible to gauge a suspicious website or web-page for possible involvement in illegal activity by copying their IP address onto a special form. A subsequent check will show whether any malicious activity was recorded on any specific domain.”
The video of the plenary meeting and all themed sessions are available at the National Center’s VK social media account.
Bunchuk discussed the Coordination Center’s educational project Study the Internet – Govern It! at a roundtable discussion organized by the Russian Association of Electronic Communications at the Cyber-House. In turn, Rostelecom is doing its best to upgrade this project. The roundtable discussion involved Digital Dictation participants. First, Bunchuk informed the participants about a new, and so far underestimated, cyber-threat, exposed by media outlet Tech Crunch. Bored teenagers are a real nuisance because young hackers possess the required skills, including knowledge of social engineering; they also have essential tools and a low level of critical thinking. This prevents them from seeing the entire picture and assessing the consequences of their actions.
“I hope that our project helps distract teenagers from ‘harmful’ thoughts because the primarily interactive Study the Internet – Govern It! project teaches people in the game format. Today, it includes the Knowledge online simulator, a quiz for an offline event, a Knowledge in Tests section adapted for mobile devices, a board game, a comic book and many other exciting activities,” Bunchuk said. “This format makes people want to learn more about the way the internet is organized and to find out how they can use digital tools more effectively.”
After the roundtable discussion, the speakers unanimously agreed that it was necessary to educate people in the use of devices and to enable them to analyze information; this is particularly important during the massive spread of fake news and misinformation. It will therefore become possible to successfully integrate digital technologies with everyday life.
They emphasized the fact that young people aged 18 to 25 years were the most vulnerable group in this context. Although they have great trust in gadgets and boast impressive digital skills, their spiritual and moral qualities remain rather low. This creates risks for a critical perception of information and for forging a stable world outlook.
The roundtable participants agreed to continue their cooperation and to draft specific initiatives for educating and supporting people of all age categories in this age of rapidly developing digital technologies.
