Azernews.Az

By Nigar Orujova

Ninety percent of cyber attacks in Azerbaijan are carried out from abroad, Azerbaijani Communications and Information Technologies Minister, Ali Abbasov, said on December 2.

He made the remarks at an international conference titled "Global Cyber Security Cooperation: Challenges and Visions".

"Some of these attacks are supported by the governments of certain states," Abbasov said, without giving further details.

He went on to note that Azerbaijan is working on cyber security.

"In particular, a draft law is being prepared on the issue. Moreover, the law on information security adopted in the late 90s requires updates," he added.

According to Abbasov, Azerbaijan fights for the computer security on two levels. One of these levels concerns legal issues, which involves the Justice Ministry, prosecution agencies and other structures, while the second level is technological, which includes operators, and companies providing cyber services, that should use detection systems and improve cyber security.

Improving legislation on cybercrime will help to improve its efficiency, he added.

Addressing the event, International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Secretary General Hamadoun Toure said the cybersecurity is a global issue and therefore it must be resolved at the global level on the basis of the international cooperation.

He said the sources of cyber threats can be different. This could eventually lead to cyber-wars and the best way to fight a war is its warning and prevention.

"One can distinguish five areas as the main combat methods, namely, the necessary legal framework, technical readiness, national coordination, training of specialists in the aforementioned three directions and international cooperation," Toure said.

Azerbaijan is taking strides to address the cyber security issue. The announcement of 2013 as the year of ICT is part of the efforts to bolster cyber security in the country. Baku also continues its international ties in this regard.

In October, Ali Abbasov was admitted as a member of the International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber ​​Threats (ITU-IMPACT Collaboration), which is the executive body of the International Telecommunication Union, bringing together governments, academia and industry experts to build the capacity of the international community in the fight against cyber threats.

The ITU welcomes the involvement of Azerbaijan in addressing the cyber security, a key issue that needs to have global agreement from all member states.

The Baku conference, organized by the Azerbaijani government with the support of the ITU, the World Bank, the World Economic Forum and INTERPOL, welcomed leading global experts on economic development and government policy to discuss strategies to leverage the transformational power of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to foster greater international cooperation on securing cyber space.

The conference aimed to facilitate discussions on all aspects of cyber security and to promote the exchange of best practices, as well as sharing of meaningful information on major developments in the protection of online activities.