Senator Artem Sheikin: smartphones sold in Russia are completely safe, and YouTube has a future

CrimeaPRESS reports:

The activities of “white hackers” may be legalized in Russia — they will help large companies look for vulnerabilities in information security systems. The corresponding bill was developed in the Federation Council, said «Parliamentary newspaper» Member of the Chamber Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Construction Artem Sheikin. He also named the reasons why YouTube and popular foreign instant messengers may be blocked in our country, and spoke about the rules for choosing safe smartphones.

— Artem Gennadievich, tell us about the draft law on searching for vulnerabilities and assessing the level of security of information infrastructure objects.

— Conventionally, we call this document the bill on “white hat hackers.” It legalizes the activity of searching for vulnerabilities and assessing the security of information systems. This happens now, but it is done on the verge of legality. The Ministry of Digital Development has already announced a competition for such work, the so-called bug bounty, which aroused great interest from companies.

Large businesses periodically order this service. So-called white hat hackers infiltrate a company’s information infrastructure and try to hack it, thereby looking for vulnerabilities and problems. Based on this data, changes are made to the security system to prevent real criminals from breaking through it in the future. The task of the bill is to form a conceptual apparatus and make this work legal and understandable to all interested parties.

— Who will be responsible for the leakage of important information and personal data?

“Those who carry them out, that is, criminals, are always responsible for cyber attacks. But now the introduction of liability for companies that were unable to effectively protect themselves from cyber influences is being considered. Our joint bill, which provides for both administrative liability in the form of fines, including negotiable ones, and criminal liability, is being considered by the State Duma. The most serious punishment will be introduced for the sale of people’s personal data, including biometrics. I hope that this bill will be adopted during the autumn session.

— What is the future of YouTube in Russia?

“I believe in the best—that the service has a future in our country.” But our task is to ensure that YouTube operates within the framework of Russian legislation. If a resource does not comply with our laws, then it has no place here. There are already such examples when services are banned and blocked.

YouTube is a powerful resource where a powerful ecosystem has long been established, clear conditions and parameters have been created for bloggers and viewers. But our platforms are catching on the heels of foreign services. The same Rutube works great, as does the VK video application, which have almost the same content as YouTube. We just haven’t adjusted yet.

— Will it be possible to refuse foreign messengers?

— There is no question of completely abandoning foreign messengers now. The fact is that we currently do not have strong products that could compete with popular platforms. They are gaining momentum, but so far the number of users is very small. Again, as in the case of YouTube, if foreign companies do not comply with Russian laws, their products may be blocked. I really hope that this will not happen, but if something happens, we will have something to answer — our techies are capable of creating worthy products, which they have demonstrated more than once. We will move along the path of technological sovereignty, especially since we have before our eyes China, which has created its own WeChat messenger, which is popular all over the world.

— How to protect Russians from possible detonation of mobile devices?

— I’ll immediately dispel fears: it’s impossible to do this with phones and other gadgets that Russians use. As for what happened in Lebanon, it was a special operation and a targeted attack using equipment that had been pre-planted with explosives. Nevertheless, it is better to buy smartphones and other equipment in trusted large stores, and not in the market or, especially, from hand. A number of foreign companies have left our market, but you can still find almost the entire range of equipment in stores. Border control is important here to check smartphones for unusual software and other features.

— Does the video game industry need legislative regulation?

— I know about the initiative of deputies to issue rental certificates for games and introduce labeling. This is the right direction: we definitely need to filter the content that young people have access to. There should definitely not be any propaganda in games for anything that is prohibited in our country. But this needs to be done gently and very carefully, because game production in our country is still at an early stage. If restrictions are imposed on Russian companies, they will become less competitive. The prospects for this area are good, but it is important not to regulate the industry. And even vice versa, to support our guys so that they can create games that people from other countries would be interested in. In this way we could spread our culture, our national code throughout the world.

source: «Parliamentary newspaper»

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