Anatoly Vyborny: Model Cybersecurity Law Will Help Ensure the Reliability and Resilience of National Information Systems

Anatoly Vyborny, Chairman of the CSTO PA Standing Commission on Defence and Security, held a meeting in St Petersburg. Participants of the event approved draft Model Laws On Critical Information Infrastructure Security and On Information Protection and Cybersecurity, Recommendatory Glossary of Terms and Definitions for the CSTO Member States in the Area of National and International Security and Recommendations on the Legislative Support of Sanitary and Epidemiological Security.

“The focus is on the legal regulation of information and cybersecurity. Certainly, for any sphere, legislative regulation at the international level is a difficult and multifaceted task. It is very important to develop a unified conceptual framework, to come to a common terminology. Given the trans-boundary nature of cyberspace, integration in this area is of paramount importance for the CSTO Member States. Because the vulnerability of even one national IT system can become a threat to security at a more global level. Therefore, we need a new coordinated policy to counter computer attacks. At the same time, we are working on unified legal norms for sustainable functioning of the critical information infrastructure,” said Anatoly Vyborny.

He noted that adoption and subsequent implementation of model laws and recommendations will contribute to unification of norms of national legislations of the CSTO Member States. According to him, the role of IT-technologies is significant both in the lives of ordinary citizens and in the activities of state institutions and important industrial facilities. Therefore, it is of principal importance to view issues of cybersecurity within the CSTO area through the inter-parliamentary dimension.

In addition, members of the Standing Commission considered a number of model laws, recommendations and other legal acts that are directly related to ensuring national and collective healthcare security. Commission members supported the draft recommendations. It was decided to send the documents to the parliaments of the CSTO Member States to obtain their expert opinions.

“Regional biological security consists of sanitary and epidemiological well-being throughout the CSTO space. Therefore, unification of sanitary and epidemiological services is no less relevant for our countries. They rely on the basic principles of epidemiological surveillance, sanitary protection of the territory and operational interaction and harmonised cooperation algorithms and the constant exchange of up-to-date information. The ability to respond to crises depends on the reliability and sustainability of the national systems,” Mr Vyborny stressed.

The development of these draft documents completes the current stage of the CSTO PA’s five-year Action Plan on Approximation and Harmonization of National Legislation of the CSTO Member States for 2021–2025, said Anatoly Vyborny, Chairman of the CSTO PA Standing Commission on Defence and Security.