• am
  • ru
  • en
print version
30.10.2014

PROPOSALS REGARDING CYBERSECURITY OF ARMENIA

EnglishРуский

   

Samvel Martirosyan
Expert of the Information Center of the Noravank Foundation

Day to day Armenia becomes more vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Until recently various cyber-attacks were viewed simply as curious media-events, while today, when dozens of websites come under hacker attacks, some cases of deeper impacts are seen. For example, a number DDoS attacks in 2013-2014 (perpetrators of which remain unknown to date) resulted in an overall internet disruption in Armenia1.

Generally, the increased vulnerability of the Armenian cyberspace is caused by several circumstances:

1. Digitalization and burgeoning telecom industry in Armenia in the recent years are bringing about deep penetration of the country’s infrastructures in the cyberspace, which in turn leads to creation of numerous new vulnerable spots. Presently, the only thing that the public is aware about is that the National Security Service (NSS) protects the government websites and networks. However, situation is unknown for the non-government, but publicly important areas, such as energy, water supply, etc.

2. Armenia’s main adversary in cyberspace is Azerbaijan (Turkey should be added, too, as a non-active, but potential adversary), which develops cyber-attack forces and upgrades their quality. Naturally, this is a rather off-the-record area and little becomes known about any developments. However, it is known that in Azerbaijan CERT - Computer Emergency Response Team exists as a cyber-defense unit within the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies. On the other hand, judging by some indirect information it can be stated that Azerbaijan has already launched several mass DDoS attacks on government and mass media networks of Armenia. Although third country hired hand hacker groups were used for this purpose, but the trend of having the opportunity handy to launch such attacks is evident.

3. Critical infrastructures of Armenia are becoming vulnerable also to attacks from third parties, i.e. other countries, as well as non-government, terrorist and criminal groups. Today the means of attack are so sophisticated and protection is so costly, that the threats may come from hardly assessable sources. For instance, government resources of a number of countries have been attacked by some Anonymous community-affiliated motley groups, which differ in their ideologies.

4. The main vulnerable resources of Armenia and their protection capabilities have not been clearly assessed.

5. The general Armenian public is a separate big problem unto itself, because with the dramatic increase of internet users in the recent years, nothing was done to make sure minimal computer knowledge is delivered to the population. As a result, we have a society that is mostly unaware of proper minimum computer “hygiene”. This means not only individuals, but also various public groups and the society as a whole are vulnerable in terms of information security.

Such global developments may lead to serious problems, resulting in personal and public data leaks, losses in financial sector, breakdown of energy and other critical infrastructures, disruption of information flows, etc. As of today only government websites and networks in Armenia are actually under protection of the NSS (in fact, municipal bodies of Armenia and almost all government bodies of Artsakh are not). The banking sector is obviously vulnerable. The databases with personal information are apparently vulnerable and there are no clear-cut approaches to their protection.

It has to be also noted that protection tools alone would not solve all the problems in the field. Given that Armenia is in a state of a frozen war and that another clash with Azerbaijan is very likely (this is realized well at least in the area of conventional defense), it becomes a serious problem that Armenia has no established structures capable of carrying out cyber-attacks. In a possible war with Azerbaijan, Armenia will need not only defensive, but also offensive methods. The conflicts of recent years (e.g. Russia-Georgia, Israel-Palestine, etc.) showed that the belligerent dominating in cyberspace gains serious advantages in the overall warfare. Only offensive forces are capable of securing such advantage in cyberspace.

With all of this in mind, the following is proposed:

1. Create cyber-defense forces within defense and law enforcement agencies, as it is done in many other countries. Even if the adversary would not manage to form its own cyber-army in time, it is clear that hackers hired from third countries would be used against Armenia.

2. Establish a public agency for cybersecurity that would assist the non-government structures and inform the general public about existing cyber-threats.

3. Establish control over non-government critical structures, including the banking, energy, public services and other sectors. Given that most of these structures are owned by foreign investors, this control gains even higher importance, because in such cases problems may arise not only from irresponsibility, but also through influences of third countries (for example, the threats stemming from communications sector control by third countries has to be considered).

The threats in cyberspace tend to develop faster than they are comprehended, let alone countered against. In such situation the government’s cooperation with the public, businesses, scientific and research communities in the security matters becomes an issue of outmost importance.

1 DDOS հարձակումները Հայաստանի վրա դառնում են մտահոգիչ, http://noravank.am/arm/articles/security/detail.php?ELEMENT_ID=12706

“Globus” analytical bulletin, No. 10, 2014

Return
Another materials of author