Armenian Internet Governance Forum finished in Yerevan 

ArmInfo.Armenian Internet Governance Forum (ArmIGF) finished its work in Yerevan yesterday. The forum has been held for the second time organized by the Ministry of Transport and Communications of Armenia, Internet Governance Council and Internet Society of Armenia NGO (ISOC AM). 

Representatives of numerous IT companies of the country, NGOs,  experts and foreign guests participated in the forum, during which  timely issues, related to cyber and information security, mechanisms  of control in the internet, cooperation between the state and internet community were discussed.

Secretary of IGC Grigoriy Saghyan informed in a talk to ArmInfo's  correspondent that the development rates of internet are so high  nowadays that neither bureaucratic government system nor legislation  keep up with it. The attempts to control internet fail as usual, even  in conditions of the so called vertical control people get round any  restrictions. According to the specialist Armenia has chosen  horizontal democratic model in the issue of internet control, which  is a mixed system of governance via involvement of private sector,  NGOs and academic institutes.  According to Saghyan interagency  Internet Governance Council formed by the government's decision in  August 2014 has developed a plan of actions including solving a  number of tasks related to child protection in internet space,  protection from ddos attacks, work of on-line casinos.

"The principles of internet governance developed and approved by the  Council are rather progressive and balanced but it is still not clear  how successful they will be used. Importantly, model of "neutral  network" has been chosen as basis for these principles, this means  the network is neutral to the information passed through it", the  specialist noted, stressing that Public Services Regulation  Commission is guided by these fundamental principles in its work. In  Russia and in a number of other countries, which have not signed or  revoked their signatures from the Budapest Convention on Cyber Crime  signed in 2006, there are other rules, according to which network  operator can involve in the process for controlling and bearing  responsibility for the content. According to Saghyan, considering  that Armenia and Russia are very integrated including in legal  framework, different approaches may be in the given field and the  Internet Governance Council could provide consultative assistance for  solving arising contradictions. 

Touching upon the issue of cyber and information security the expert  stressed the existence of a great number of problems in this field.  "This is a very complex issue and that is why we have discussed it at  the forum. Information security envisages both uninterrupted network  operation and control over content.  Cyber-security is work for  ensuring network operation without control over its content. Armenia  has security concept, which envisages control. It has been developed  by the Security Council and signed by the President but no practical  steps have been taken yet unlike the convention on fighting cyber  crimes. That is why the main question is whether it is necessary to  involve operators for controlling content in the process of ensuring  security. This is practiced in Russia and is not practiced in our  country. And I hope it will not for a number of reasons. This will  have negative impact on the country's ranking, as Armenia is  considered a free zone of Internet, this means it has an attractive  status which it may lose with all the unwanted consequences", the  expert summarized.