Valery Semerikov: Information security is among CSTO’s top priorities

“The modern world is undergoing a profound transformation. The desire for peace, development, equal and mutually beneficial cooperation and the formation of a community of universal peace and prosperity is becoming increasingly important. At the same time, the world sees the rise of global challenges and threats, as well as factors of uncertainty and unpredictability,” stated Valery Semerikov, deputy Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, speaking at the 24th meeting of the National Information Security Forum INFOFORUM 2022.
The CSTO deputy Secretary General emphasized that the participation in the Forum of delegations of the CSTO Member States – Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan – “is a testament to our great interest in international and regional work in the sphere of information security and, in general, of counteracting challenges and threats in the CSTO area of responsibility.”
Valery Semerikov noted that the main threats to state and public security in the CSTO area of responsibility are still the activities of criminal organizations and groups, including transnational ones, connected with illicit trafficking of drugs and psychoactive substances, weapons, ammunition and explosives and organization of illegal migration and human trafficking.
“The danger of these threats is multiplied when achieving these criminal goals through the use of information and telecommunication technologies, primarily the Internet,” stated the CSTO deputy Secretary General.
Valery Semerikov recalled that the development of digital technologies, in addition to their benefits, also carries significant risks, as it opens up new opportunities for committing crimes and terrorist attacks. According to the CSTO deputy Secretary General, this can be exacerbated if adequate attention is not paid to protecting digital sovereignty.
“That is why it is important to gradually build up protection against existing and potential threats at the level of inter-state cooperation within the CSTO,” stressed Valery Semerikov.
He said that multilateral cooperation in information security is one of the priorities in ensuring collective security of the CSTO Member States.
“By interacting on the development and promotion of the legal framework of cooperation, our states contribute to the improvement of the international legal framework. They form practical mechanisms for a joint response to threats to information security. They develop confidence-building measures in the field of information security and improve the technological foundations,” said the CSTO deputy Secretary General.
Valery Semerikov noted that the CSTO States will further strengthen cooperation in combating crimes in the sphere of information technologies.
According to him, the emphasis will be put on conducting a permanent joint CSTO Operation Proksi on combating information technology crimes; countermeasures to computer incidents; as well as CSTO operations Nelegal on combating illegal migration, Kanal on combating drug trafficking and the anti-terrorist complex of operational and preventive measures Nayemnik. “Heads of the CSTO Member States called upon our Organization to build an inter-state system of ensuring security along an entire range of modern challenges and threats,” stressed Valery Semerikov.
The CSTO deputy Secretary General sees the involvement of observer states and dialogue partners into the joint work, the deepening of contacts with interested states and international organizations, primarily the SCO, CIS and BRICS member states, as an important resource for strengthening the CSTO cooperation in the sphere of information security; work in this area will also be intensified.