An international conference “Cybersecurity and problems of combating new types of cybercrime” took place at Mining University. The forum brought together information security specialists, heads of law enforcement agencies from Russia, Germany, and Israel, teachers of the largest Russian technical universities, lawyers, and specialists of the banking sector.
Vladimir Litvinenko, Rector of Mining University opened the conference. According to him, “today the global damage from the actions of digital fraudsters amounts to 40 billion dollars. And it increases every year at an avalanche-like pace. However, stealing money from private bank depositors is not the most dangerous thing. What’s more dangerous is the damage caused by cybercriminals in the industrial and extractive industries.”
"Today we are becoming hostage to digital systems in all spheres of life. And more than half of all world trade, 52 percent, is in oil and gas. This is still the backbone of the global economy, no matter what the adherents of the digital society say. And a complete shift to the digital economy is extremely dangerous for the maintenance of world order and stability. After all, those countries that actively support the transition to the digital economy are completely dependent on those who manage these processes. We cannot allow this to happen in our country. Our main task is to preserve Russia’s sovereignty,” Vladimir Litvinenko concluded.
President of the All-Russian Police Association, Professor Yury Zhdanov, said that cybercriminals are ready to bring down the world's traditional economy. Modern civilization is on the brink of a global crisis. Every year the cost of information protection increases by 15 percent. Hacker programs are constantly improving, and in addition to the usual banking sector, industrial and energy sectors are in first place in the number of cyberattacks. This year, damage caused by cybercriminals is expected to amount to 6 trillion rubles, which is already a very serious challenge for the country's economy," Yury Zhdanov noted.
Stanislav Kuznetsov, Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of Sberbank of Russia, spoke at the forum about the most popular online fraud methods today and ways to combat them. He said that the number of cybercrimes has increased by 70 percent over the past year, and now Russia is experiencing the second wave of online fraud, which began back in 2017. According to the expert, to effectively disclose cybercrime, police officers need to be as advanced in the IT-sphere as the criminals.
Participants of the conference noted that it is already impossible to do without interaction of all interested structures in the countries of the common economic market. During the discussion, the invited experts spoke about the fact that only by joint efforts of law enforcement bodies, the banking sector, IT specialists, and state organizations can successfully fight international cybercrime. And borders between countries must not become barriers for computer criminals.
