Azerbaijan developing national strategy on cybersecurity

By Kamila Aliyeva

Azerbaijan is working on the development of a national strategy on cybersecurity, Azerbaijani Deputy Minister of Transport, Communications and High Technologies Elmir Velizade said.

He was speaking at an event dedicated to cybersecurity training for CIS countries, organized with the support of the International Telecommunication Union, in Baku on September 5.

The work in this direction is carried out on the initiative of the ministry together with the corresponding state agencies of the country, Velizade noted.

“Moreover, a coordinating commission has been set up in the field of information security in the country. This testifies to the fact that the country pays great attention to this sphere,” he said.

The deputy minister went on to say that the dynamics of development in the country and the wide application of information and communication technologies require great attention to ensuring cybersecurity.

“An integrated approach beginning from an ordinary user and ending with solving organizational, technological and technical issues is required. From this point of view, local specialists in this sphere should have good skills and promptly eliminate possible incidents," he said.

Velizade recalled that large-scale events have been recently carried out in the country.

“During these events, the main issue was to ensure cybersecurity. Among those events are the Eurovision Song Contest, the first European Games, Islamic Solidarity Games and other events of international significance. It was important to ensure the protection of information systems at all these events,” he said.

The deputy minister noted that during this time there were no serious incidents in the sphere of information security.

“But it is important to constantly raise the level of knowledge in this sphere. Today, great attention is paid to this sphere and one of the steps is to develop a national strategy on cybersecurity,” he added.

Touching upon the issue of transition to a new generation electronic identity cards, Velizade noted that this will further increase the level of cybersecurity of Azerbaijan.

The integration of electronic signature and authentication certificates into new identity cards is considered a progressive step, according to the official.

“Their availability will allow citizens to access e-government services, to gain free access to them. What is important, citizens will no longer need to purchase e-signature and authentication certificates. From this point of view, this step can be considered progressive. We believe that the transition to new identity cards will also serve to increase the level of cybersecurity in the country,” Velizade said.

Speaking to reporters later, the deputy minister said that the prepared project is being agreed upon in the government agencies of Azerbaijan and, in line with the procedure, will be submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers.

“The strategy envisages the most advanced experience in the field of cybersecurity. The document that will be adopted in Azerbaijan provides for full compliance with international experience - full readiness for cyber threats, application of all necessary measures to combat them, coordination issues, etc.,” he noted

Velizade added that the adoption of the National Cybersecurity Strategy will also contribute to the revision of the issues of legal regulation in this area.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

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