Priority tasks of ensuring information security in the context of modern challenges and threats

Duben' Andrei Kirillovich Scientific Associate, Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Assistant, Department of Civil and Administrative Proceedings, Russian State University of Justice 119019, Russia, Moscow region, Moscow, Znamenka str., 10 k.duben@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Information, which is one of the main economic and political resources, expands the range of different ways of using it for educational, social, economic and cultural purposes, ensuring law and order, and for other socially significant purposes.

The subject of the study forms a set of norms of normative legal acts of the Russian Federation regulating public relations in the field of information security, as well as the provisions of theoretical interdisciplinary research in this area. The problems of legal provision of information security of the Russian Federation in the context of new challenges and threats are most deeply developed in the scientific works of L.K. Tereshchenko, E.S. Zinovieva, I.M. Popov, M.M. Khamzatov, S.M. Boyko and other leading scientists in this field. The analysis shows that Russian science has accumulated a substantial body of knowledge on certain aspects of information security. The methodological basis of the research is an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the problem, using the provisions of philosophy, jurisprudence, sociology, political science, military science and other branches of scientific knowledge. General scientific methods (abstraction, analysis, synthesis, analogy, induction, deduction, modeling) were used in the process of studying the problems of legal provision of information security.

Modern digital technologies, combining convergence, end-to-end and breakthrough nature for the development of society and the state, not only create limitless opportunities, but also form new challenges and security threats in the process of their implementation and use. At the same time, national security is currently characterized as a complex system determined by the action of various factors and threats ^{[1, p. 102]}. The conditions of digital transformation as a result of the rapid development of digital technologies, which initially assumed a positive impact on all spheres of life with adequate use of the achievements of scientific and technological progress, at the same time can become not only an effective tool for the creative transformation of public relations, but also carry certain risks. So, in recent years, a significant increase in the number of crimes committed using computer technology has been recorded.

Examining the statistical data, it should be noted that the damage to Russia from cyber threats in 2018 amounted to more than 1 trillion rubles, in 2019 – 2.5 trillion rubles. ^[2] At the same time, in 2020, the damage amounted to 3.5 trillion rubles, and in 2021, according to preliminary data, it is 7 trillion rubles. ^[3]. Statistics show that the number of cyberattacks is increasing every year and their result is more and more significant damage to the domestic information infrastructure. Thus, experts note that the number of information attacks increases by 6.5% every year compared to the previous one ^[4].

In turn, we can state that the public authorities of the Russian Federation are adapting to the new working conditions in the ICT environment, taking into account the new big challenges, threats and risks. The strengthening of illegal influence on information resources in the public administration system required the adoption of additional measures to ensure information security ^[5].

The importance of this issue was also noted by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who emphasized that the emergence of new information technologies entails a change in the usual paradigms, defines new rules for the use of information systems, while giving another impetus to the transition to the digital sphere of public bodies and non-governmental organizations. In his opinion, modern challenges, threats and risks are the result of aggressive and long-term policies of individual countries of the European Union and the United States, which seek to form and consolidate their dominance in all technological processes of the information space. He also stressed the importance of measures to counteract technotronic crime: "Almost every day, Russian state institutions, mass media, critical infrastructure facilities, and the life support system are subjected to powerful cyber attacks using advanced information technologies. All this is part of a coordinated information aggression against our country. Special attention is required to the tasks of protecting the relevant resources of executive authorities, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is necessary to constantly improve the measures taken for this purpose, to establish daily monitoring of the implementation of the relevant instructions of the Government" ^[6].

We believe that in the conditions of geopolitical instability and transformation of the world order, modern cyberattacks with non-standard methods, methods and means of committing them require prompt work at the legislative level to prevent and prevent destructive effects on domestic information resources and information infrastructure of the public and private sector.

Today, the state of information security is of some concern due to systematic attacks carried out in order to destabilize traditional public relations in certain regions of the world, as well as the dissemination of false information to promote their own national interests for military-political and other hostile purposes ^{[7, p. 42]}. There is an intensification of the processes of spreading false information by "unfriendly" states, information confrontation between the leading powers of the world, including for military and political purposes. These illegal actions are aimed at destabilizing the activities of public authorities and interfering in the internal affairs of the State through the use of information technology.

The conducted research shows that the methods of conducting hostile actions at the present stage of the development of digital technologies are also in the process of permanent development. The number of cases of hybrid warfare is also increasing. Hybrid conflicts are conducted by "irregular forces mixed with regular troops, and are characterized by the simultaneous use of irregular and regular strategies and tactics of action" ^{[8, p. 344]}. With this type of conflict, the possibility of using information weapons increases even more, transforming the field of hostile actions and integrating their use in information, economic, political and other spheres. Thus, the Permanent Representative of China to the UN noted that acts of arbitrary blocking and freezing of foreign currency reserves also lead to a violation of the sovereignty of states ^[9].

It should be noted that the formation of an information security system taking into account the national interests of Russia, the prevention (settlement) of interstate conflicts in the global information space are possible only on the basis of an appropriate international legal regime, the promotion of which is determined by the main goal of state policy in the field of international information security ^{[10, p. 53]}. The rules of conduct of States in the information space and in conditions of armed conflict should become an integral part of this regime. In addition, an important threat in the information sphere affecting national security is the impact on critical infrastructure. These threats arise as a result of disruption of the functioning of information systems ^{[11, p. 72]}.

These conditions inevitably entail measures to strengthen Russia's position in a competitive information struggle with both existing and new centers of power, as well as to further improve the international legal regulation of certain provisions of the development of means and methods of information protection based on the use of advanced digital technologies.

In this study, it is possible to identify modern challenges and threats to national information security, which are divided into internal and external.

In our opinion, internal threats in the information sphere should include:

1) systematic violation of the rules for the use of restricted access information;

2) the absence or inadequate level of qualification of personnel in the use of information and computer devices and other products necessary to ensure information security;

3) the use of foreign technologies and technical means in information processes;

4) violation of legal norms on copyright protection in the creation and implementation of secret inventions created, including by state order;

5) conflicts and legal gaps in domestic legislation in the regulation of relations in the field of information security;

6) and others.

External threats in the information sphere include:

1) active intelligence and counter-offensive activities of foreign intelligence agencies;

2) continuous information acts of aggression through cyber attacks on information infrastructure facilities;

3) the use of methods and means of information warfare through the use of cognitive weapons by foreign states against the national interests of the Russian Federation;

4) the use of special techniques in the information space that affect the interests of interstate cooperation in the field of information security;

5) the use of methods of filtering digital content on the Internet in order to limit the dissemination of reliable information about the policy of the Russian Federation and the initiatives promoted by it;

6) and others.

Taking into account the above list of modern information threats, we consider it necessary, along with the use of a set of legal means, to take organizational measures in the field of information security:

1) formation of favorable conditions for the improvement of human resources and the formation of a reserve of specialists in the field of information technology and information security;

2) creation of a domestic software product for information protection and identification of threats in the information system;

3) increasing the digital and information and legal culture of information security of citizens to form resistance to the information and psychological impact of foreign intelligence services and the influence of destructive ideology;

4) improvement of the regulatory framework for the protection of intellectual property and the Russian information infrastructure;

5) creation of effective measures to protect information through the development of technical regulation, including licensing, standardization, certification and certification in this area;

6) development of interstate cooperation with partner states in the field of information security through integration interaction, the formation of common international norms in the field of legal information security.

We believe that the formation and development of a national state policy aimed at ensuring information security will contribute to further improving the protection of information technologies and systems, preventing data vulnerability and reducing the occurrence of information threats. It seems that these measures will ensure the protection of Russia's information sovereignty, the protection of subjects and objects of high information technologies and innovative infrastructure.

Thus, based on the conducted research, it can be concluded that a combination of various risks, challenges and threats in the information space has intensified in the context of geopolitical changes and further digitalization of all spheres. At the present stage of development of society and the state, among the most urgent threats to national information security due to the dynamism of the information sphere, such threats can be identified as illegal impact on national information resources, information and telecommunication systems and information infrastructure, including critical information structures; the use of means and methods of spreading false (fake) information for the purpose of disinformation of an indefinite circle people using illegal methods and means, including cognitive methods of influencing the human psyche in order to disorganize and suppress the will; unauthorized interference in the national information space. Thus, the transformation of the information space in the context of geopolitical changes and the aggravation of socio-economic and international contradictions have determined a new vector of development of legal regulation of information security.