SCO countries experts to discuss information security issues

Shanghai Cooperation Organization scientific and expert forum on information security will be held in Tashkent on September 6.

The event is held by the Institute for Strategic and Regional Studies under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan with the support of the Ministry for the Development of Information Technologies and Communications of the Republic of Uzbekistan together with the Executive Committee of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure.

The dialogue on information security issues, organised in a hybrid format of foreign participants, plans to bring together more than 30 leading experts from the representatives of relevant ministries and departments and scientific, academic and analytical circles of the SCO member states.

The representative composition of the participants will allow discussing of the latest trends and achievements in the field of digitalisation, as well as exchanging the best national experience in countering threats to information and cyber security in the context of ensuring human rights and the rule of law in the SCO space.

The initiative to hold this Forum was put forward by the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, at the Dushanbe SCO summit on September 17, 2021.

Given the observed steady growth in the adoption of digital technologies and online activity around the world, the organisation of this event is very relevant. The rapid digitalisation of the life of society, business and the state raise several objective problems. In particular, the pandemic caused a sharp increase in cybercrime in the information space. According to experts, in 2021, the number of cyber attacks worldwide will increase by 50% compared to 2020. The damage from cybercrime in 2021 exceeded $6 trillion compared to $3 trillion in 2015.

The problem of protecting critical infrastructure from cyber threats remains relevant. According to experts, the most frequently attacked sectors are energy, industry, defence and the public.

Along with this, the information space began to be regarded by extremist ideologists as the most attractive platform for conducting ideological propaganda.

The above negative trends require the SCO member states to develop comprehensive approaches to protecting cyberspace and ensuring information security. The cross-border nature of these threats dictates the need to complement national efforts with joint actions at the regional and international levels.

It should also be emphasised that today the SCO has already established cooperation in ensuring international information security. Since 2006, the Expert Group on International Information Security has been functioning within the framework of the SCO, which is a permanent body of the SCO and coordinates relevant ministries and departments.

In turn, the Agreement among the Governments of the SCO Member States in the field of ensuring international information security, signed on June 16, 2009, is the basis for cooperation in the field of information security.

In November 2020, the Joint Statement of the Heads of SCO Member States on Cooperation in Ensuring International Information Security was adopted.

In 2021, following the results of the anniversary SCO summit in Dushanbe, the Plan of Interaction on ensuring international information security for 2022-2023 was signed and developed with the active participation of Uzbekistan.

Currently, all SCO countries are implementing national strategic and conceptual documents aimed at developing a digital society, transferring public administration, financial and economic sectors to digital format.

In this context, the critical and timely initiative of the President of Uzbekistan to hold a forum will allow the participants to develop specific proposals and practical recommendations for the formation of a unified policy to counter threats and challenges in the field of information security, as well as agree on common approaches to ensuring free and unhindered access to information for citizens SCO countries.

To consider the full range of issues, the agenda of the forum is divided into three thematic sessions:

I. “Expanding access to information is an important factor in the development of modern society”;

II. "Information and ideological threats and the development of effective response measures";

III. "Protection of objects of critical information infrastructure in the conditions of dynamic development of ICT".

In general, the upcoming event will strengthen regional cooperation and increase the potential of the SCO member states in countering threats in information and cyberspace.