REAL THREATS IN VIRTUAL WORLD

According to experts of UN, WEF, EU, NATO and other institutions, international cybercrime is one of the most serious global risks. In Azerbaijan, where digital technologies are dynamically introduced in all spheres of the economy and state administration, steps are taken to protect the national virtual space from such risks. Today Azerbaijan implements a set of measures to enhance its cybersecurity at both the state and corporate levels, and develops its National Cybersecurity Strategy.

Invisible network

Times when solo hackers used to hack corporate networks of financial and state institutions just to test their prowess are gone. Today numerous organised criminal groups using hundreds of infected computers, which can leave no traces, and encouraged by substantial criminal earnings replace them. Illegal online markets, IP theft, and other cybercrimes generate $1.5 trillion in annual income. Sometimes the amounts exceed the income of legitimate companies.

According to the WEF-2018 report, cyber-attacks occupy the third place in the list of global risks after natural disasters and problems related to weather phenomena. Quite often important infrastructure objects such as power grids, water purification systems, and other vital urban facilities can become the targets of hackers.

Experts at Kaspersky Lab, who organised cyber security training for technical personnel of oil and gas companies, believe that Azerbaijan is also facing these threats. According to Andrei Suvorov, Head of Critical Infrastructure Protection Business Development at Kaspersky Lab, there are two key areas in Azerbaijan that require priority measures to ensure cybersecurity: oil and gas chemistry and energy. To ensure security in these areas, it is necessary to introduce a comprehensive protection solution for both industrial automation systems and corporate computer systems. As the world experience shows, notes Suvorov, hackers can use any flaw in these systems at least to reduce the quality of the output product in order to extort large amounts of money. The attacker can perform actual hacking from an ordinary café with a wireless Wi-Fi connection.

To serve and protect...

One can argue about whether such risks are exaggerated given the instrumental role of special services created in companies in most countries of the world to assist local security systems in preventing cyber-attacks on important state web resources and protecting the computers of defence, civilian, and industrial systems.

Similar units such as the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) under the Special Communication and Information Security Agency of the Special State Security Service operate in Azerbaijan and effectively prevent virtual threats. CERT is an effective mechanism that identifies and prevents threats to the state web resources and the entire virtual space of Azerbaijan. CERT specialists prevent numerous attacks including those committed by Armenian hackers on websites of state institutions and media outlets.

Thanks largely to CERT, last year Azerbaijan ranked 48^th in the Global Cybersecurity Index-2017 of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Thus, among the CIS countries, Azerbaijan outperformed Ukraine (59), Moldova (73), Kazakhstan (83), Tajikistan (91), Uzbekistan (93), Kyrgyzstan (97), Armenia (111), and Turkmenistan (132).

Nevertheless, the situation in this area remains quite complicated. According to the CERT report for January-May 2018, the number of requests from the state institutions of Azerbaijan to ensure computer security of their information systems increased by 58.5% (1,175 requests).

In April 2018, CERT and Microsoft Azerbaijan signed a cooperation agreement on cyber security in order to enhance the effectiveness of measures against network crimes. Similar agreements have been reached with a number of other international institutions, in particular with Computer Emergency Response Team of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC-CERT), as well as Russian, Turkish, and Iranian experts.

“International cooperation is the key to ensure the effectiveness of global combat against cybercrimes. Hence, the exchange of experience between the relevant services responsible for ensuring information security is of particular importance,” said the Deputy Head of the Special State Security Service of Azerbaijan, Head of the Special Communication and Information Security Agency, Lieutenant-General Mursal Veliyev.

Common fight

However, it is required to ensure the coordination of efforts in combatting cybercrimes not only at international level, but also at state and corporate levels. The importance of this aspect of coordination was discussed at the BIS Summit 2018 held in Baku recently. According to Alexander Tvaradze, Director of Information Security Department at Financial Chain Corp., a number of associations made up of employees of various companies and IT security divisions have been created in Azerbaijan over the past few years. Furthermore, the Association of Banks of Azerbaijan put forward an initiative to unite the security system of various banks into an association for the exchange of information. However, the weak point of all these corporate structures and IT security specialists is the low level of interaction with state bodies. “Indeed, experts can protect their system from attacks but it is possible to identify and punish the attackers only through interaction with government agencies, because only they have a properly set-up network of communication with different states in terms of countering cybercrimes,” Tvaradze said.

For example, one of the members of an international cybercrime group, a foreign national Sergei Petrovichi has recently been detained and extradited to Azerbaijan as a result of international search and judicial processes on charges of illegal access to computer systems of Azerbaijani banks to wire money, to withdraw cash from ATMs and to commit other illegal actions leading to the withdrawal of more than ₼3m from various banks. According to Tvaradze, the arrest of Petrovichi was possible after the affected banks provided all the necessary information to state bodies.

Also, in May 2018, Pavel Lunin of Russia and Andrei Serb of Ukraine were arrested on charges of the online misappropriation of millions of dollars from Azerbaijani banks. The State Security Service of Azerbaijan is investigating this case currently.

Traditionally, the financial sector of Azerbaijan has been well secured in terms of its technical potential and personnel ensuring cybersecurity. “Over the past five years, Azerbaijani banks have invested almost ₼300m in modern financial technologies, including cyber security systems. Almost half of this amount (49.8%) was used to purchase new software,” said Zakir Nuriyev, Chairman of the Association of Banks of Azerbaijan.

Unfortunately, the situation is not ideal in other sectors of the national economy. In recent years, the ‘smart house’ systems, online management of electrical appliances, video surveillance systems, etc. have been gaining popularity in Azerbaijan. Yet the systems used in both corporate and individual sectors remain practically unregulated in terms of cybersecurity.

According to the report made by the Secretariat of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), almost 20 billion devices have access to the Internet around the world. It is expected that this number will double in five years. No internationally recognised security standards have been developed for new devices, while many of those currently in use are unsafe. Therefore, if these devices are used for large-scale cyberattacks, this increases the vulnerability not only of the owners of these devices but of the society as a whole.

The growing global interest in crypto-currencies also creates problems for Azerbaijan. Bitcoin and other crypto currencies have become increasingly popular in recent years but on the other side of this popularity, we can clearly see the use of crypto currencies as tools for money laundering. For example, Bitcoin ATMs are becoming a productive tool for cybercriminals, as they are used to convert ‘dirty money’ into a more sophisticated digital currency. The use of crypto currencies in illegal online markets of the Darknet (the so-called “deep or invisible network”, where many of the web pages are not indexed by conventional search engines) is another example of their growing role in cybercrimes. For instance, the US police confiscated $28m in bitcoins from Ross Ulbricht, the creator of the world's most popular online platform for drug sales. At the same time, interest in crypto-currencies encourages the criminals to using illegal methods of currency mining. In particular, a recently discovered botnet called Prowli infected 40,000 devices and servers used by intruders to mine crypto currency.

It is not surprising therefore that the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) is in no hurry to introduce cryptocurrencies in Azerbaijan. According to CBA’s Deputy Chairman Alim Guliyev, the Central Bank is following a conservative approach investigating the risks. “There are various opinions about crypto-currencies. Some countries display a conservative approach, while in some leading countries of the world there is no clear approach to crypto-currencies. The transformation of digital money to a commodity is not over yet. The issue of cybersecurity should remain the focus,” A. Guliyev said.

In April 2018, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed an order “On the establishment of the Coordination Commission for Information Security.”

At the same time, Azerbaijan is developing its National Cybersecurity Strategy. “We hope that this new document will cover not only the public sector but all participants of these processes. Recently, the Information Security Commission has been established in Azerbaijan, which is the coordinating body in the country. Until now, different state institutions have legally fulfilled these duties. From now on, the new commission will serve to improve coordination and ensure more efficient administration and joint activities of state bodies,” said Elmir Velizadeh, Deputy Minister of Transport, Communications and High Technologies of Azerbaijan at the conference IDC DX Day Roadshow 2018 held in Baku recently.

According to Velizadeh, Azerbaijan has long been known for the professionalism of its experts in information security. After all, no major incidents have been recorded in this area since Azerbaijan has gained independence. New tools and institutions should further strengthen this position.