DISCUSSION ON "IT DEVELOPMENT AND THE CHALLENGE OF CYBER-SECURITY IN ARMENIA"
armradio.am
24.07.2009 11:20
The Armenian Center for National and International Studies (ACNIS)
held a special roundtable discussion on "IT Development and the
Challenge of Cyber-Security in Armenia," with three main presentations,
by ACNIS Director Richard Giragosian, ACNIS Administrative Director
Dr. Karapet Kalenchian and Ashot Turajyan, ACNIS System Administrator
and Webmaster.
This event was especially timely and significant, as it followed
a series of recent "cyber-attacks," which disrupted or disabled a
number of Armenian websites, including those belonging to the Armenian
government, media and private organizations.
Giragosian said that "the strengthening of cyber-security and the
fighting of cyber-crime in Armenia represents an effort of strategic
importance for the Republic of Armenia," adding that "the strategic
imperative of cyber-security stems from the realities of today's
globalized marketplace, the demands of a new security environment
and from the specific needs for ensuring adequate security for the
development of the Information Technology (IT) sector."
According to Giragosian, Armenia also "needs to keep pace with
Azerbaijan," pointing out that "the Azerbaijani government has also
been increasingly concerned with the need for enhanced cyber-security
and has formed a st ate Internet Security Council," and warned that
"the Azerbaijani military has expressed an interest in bolstering its
own cyber-warfare capabilities." He argued that it was "a strategic
imperative for Armenia to recognize cyber-security as an urgent
priority, in terms of keeping pace with globalization and defending
against the new security threats of the 21st century," and stressed
that "more specifically, there are four principal components of
Armenian cyber-security: to safeguard and defend national security,
to engage and integrate into the globalized marketplace, to develop
and expand a knowledge-based economy, and to ensure and modernize
military cyber-security."
Giragosian ended his presentation by stating that "while defining a
country's national security is one of the more basic obligations of
a state and the concept of national security is essentially defined
by a state's mission to meet possible threats, both internal and
external, this state mission is comprised of three main pillars:
to protect its territorial integrity and state borders; to provide
security for its population; and to preserve stability, in both
political and economic terms." He continued by saying that for
Armenia, "the challenge of national security, especially in today's
complex environment of multiplying threats, is to ensure that both
the definition and defense of national security is a dynami c, not
static, process of constant vigilance and preparation."
"For Armenia," according to Giragosian, "which is small in both size
and population, national security holds an even greater role in the
face of the threats of isolation and blockade, and the imperative
for cyber-security, therefore, is merely one element of a broader
long-term mandate to ensure the viability of Armenia's overall
national security."
Following Giragosian's presentation, ACNIS Administrative Director
Dr. Karapet Kalenchian offered a presentation on the "Information
Security of Social and Political Systems," addressing the theory
of technical, biological and socio-political systems in terms of
self-governance, as devised by American scientist Norbert Winner in
1948, which he termed "cybernetics." Kalenchian noted that this model
studied how information was formed, transferred and codified.
The closing presentation, "The Level of Development of IT in Armenia,"
was by Ashot Turajyan, ACNIS System Administrator and Webmaster,
who assessed the price structure for Internet services throughout
the country.
Turajyan concluded by stressing that "the most important and urgent
problem for Armenia is the protection and security of websites
and servers themselves." He also proposed that "a new level of
preparation and training is needed to withstand this danger as well
as to organize some powerful counterattacks to protect Armenia and
strengthen cyber-security."
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress