Expert: Armenia needs a relevant legislative base for efficient  investigation of computer incidents 

ArmInfo. For efficient investigation of computer incidents (separately or serially occurring failures in the operation of information systems, information resources, etc.) a  relevant legislative base should be created in Armenia, a group of  highly professional specialists and a technical base should be  allocated and a state body should be established.

This was stated by the PR expert of the "Business in a New Era" project of "Kaspersky  Lab", vice-president of the Internet community of Armenia (ISOC AM)  and the head of the CERT AM Information Security Center Grigori  Saghyan.

He explained that CERT AM, in addition to hired employees, has a  large number of activist friends who report failures and are  interested in preventing malware in computer networks>, Saghyan said,  adding that the Center is guided by ENISA standards(the European  Union Agency for Cybersecurity).

He noted that since 2010, at the level of various commissions in  Armenia, they have been discussing the issue of creating a state body  for responding to computer incidents, and found it encouraging that  on August 2 this year a meeting of the Deputy Prime Minister,  Secretary of the Security Council and the Minister of High-Tech  Industry took place, which discussed the issue of creating such a  state structure.

As Saghyan said, in Georgia for example, about 2 million euros were  spent at the initial stage of creating such a body. The EU helped the  country at the initial stage, but the current costs were borne by the  state, taking into account the high salaries of qualified  specialists.

Grigori Saghyan noted that CERT AM receives information about  computer incidents from partners from other countries, and informs  network users in Armenia about cases of virus penetration. "Recently  we received information that in the network of one of the Armenian  telecom operators there are two centers for controlling cyber attacks  of bots. But there is no direct evidence and, of course, no one will  let you into the corporate network. There is a law on inspections,  and you must come with the police, because there is no legislative  field that regulates these processes, "he stressed.

The expert considers that the main obstacle for the formation of a  professional community in this field is that many private  organizations are reluctant to share information about incidents on  their network. 

According to Grigori Saghyan, in 2019 a large amount of money was  stolen from the ATMs of one of the Armenian banks. The reason for the  theft was the penetration of cybercriminals into the bank's network  using social engineering. The hacked ATMs were operated by Windows XP  (OS). Although this program is already 20 years old, Microsoft  considered it unreasonable to address the issue with its  vulnerability. `` Nobody announced this because it is associated with  prestige, '' said the head of CERT AM, noting that a directive has  been in effect in the European Union since May 2019, which obliges  companies to inform the public within 72 hours about what is  happening in their networks in case of unforeseen accidents. We do  not have such regulations, the expert noted.