Maria Zakharova: «If people involved in digital technologies say that the soul is still needed, then everything is not lost yet»
Digital technologies have made life much easier for us in the field of communications, searching for information and moving in space without even leaving home. Especially over the past two years, when all formats have changed, including television. Even the government officials are now communicating with each other through relevant programs and applications. But is it so good? What threats does such accelerated development pose? Is something very important being lost in the pursuit of saving time? Maria Zakharova, Director of the Information and Press Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, spoke about this and more during her interview at the Positive Hack Days cybersecurity forum, which is taking place these days at World Trade Center Moscow.
Maria Zakharova noted: «If you look at global trends, now there is a separation of the technological flow, new digital, communication opportunities and a battle to preserve the traditional forms of everything - communication, connections, business, etc. We would like, of course, to harmonize these two processes, so that the best of the two environments unite, so that the digitalization does not dominate. Therefore, I stay for harmonization».
During the coronavirus pandemic, when we were limited in movement, the accelerated development of various communication platforms gave the feeling that it was possible to solve a lot of issues, to do interesting projects, without even leaving home. As practice shows, this feeling is deceptively effective only in the moment. In the future, when it is necessary to constantly communicate at work, offline interaction becomes important in order to be in the same field, as they say «on the same wavelength», in order to understand and feel each other. Otherwise, over time, the project will still fall apart, and the business will fail.
Maria Zakharova emphasized: «Covid times have created fantastic opportunities for communication, for saving time. On the one hand, it is good. People separated by borders, distance, inability to connect, were in touch. This created great opportunities for mass media, journalists, who also could not move, but at the same time could take interviews, but the coin has its negative side, which is often forgotten or even not thought at all. This has led to an increase in the flow of information. The information market has become so global, the speed of the appearance of information has become so cosmic that a person cannot perceive it, process such an amount of information. It got the opposite effect. A large amount of information completely deprives the person of its ground. One cannot check the information on his own, even if it is information from reliable sources, form his own opinion, because there is a huge amount of information. Collectively, it had the opposite effect - disappointment, disbelief, distrust, an absolute loss in space. Or vice versa - reflection at the level of rejection, in general, rejection of the media sphere. It seems there are certain boundaries, which should not be overstep. We're saving time, but we're missing out on something very important».
Until recently, it was believed that the digital, technological world is global, but in modern realities, we see a completely different picture, when various restrictions are imposed against entire states, and not even individuals.
The official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: «Five years ago, on various digital platforms, I have been spoken about the fact that we now live in a unique moment of no borders in the digital environment. In order to move in real life, we need visas, an elementary passport, travel documents, transport, etc. Digitalization allows us to move in time, in space, in information flows, in any environment without restrictions. Moreover, digital technologies were introduced, allowing you to instantly translate into any language either through online translators, or online translators became part of the platform. This was the last barrier preventing us from flying around the digital planet. All barriers were broken. We enjoy the uniqueness of the moment. And then I have made a prediction, which is now coming true, that, unfortunately, this is not for long, because such true freedom should not be allowed to humanity by those who want to control the entire process. In general, this is what we see now. We see segmentation of the Internet, and this is not done by a separate state that wants to maintain its information, financial, economic agenda. We see this just from the side of those who created this Internet space as a common one. The United States, as the progenitors of the very idea of global coverage of the Internet, became those who began the reverse policy: segmentation of the Internet, control over digital platforms, the ability to press the «alert button» of turning off, turning on and moderating, censoring entire countries.
Previously, the United States promoted the ideas of global Internet coverage, while China pursued a policy of isolation, the closeness of its own Internet space from Western countries. In the modern world, China is open, it does not «throw» users off the Web, as do the very corporations that initially advocated the global reach of the Internet.
Maria Zakharova explained: «I still think that the process that the United States has now led to segment and censor the Internet is not part of independence, sovereignty, these are completely different things. We, as countries, peoples, communities, must have our own digital sovereignty, but at the same time, no country should be able to censor and moderate other people's space based on its own vision».
According to Maria Zakharova the key parameters of sovereignty are «the presence of our own platforms, which are provided with our own «software, hardware» and technologies that are not completely dependent on other corporations and countries. The second is legislation that regulates flexibly, with nuances online, protecting where necessary from outside aggression, twinning with the environment for which it is beneficial, ensuring the technological process».
Cybersecurity today is both technology and legislation, because digital security is associated with crime, and this is both punishment and prevention. Either laws or technologies provide both.
Maria Zakharova emphasized: «Our country has become the state that has incorporated the question of international information security into the UN agenda. At that time when it was not yet a global trend. Our experts have calculated all the opportunities and risks and realized that this issue needs to be put under control of the UN, so that it has international legal regulation, so that everything is transparent and legitimate».
Cybersecurity basically consists of three main layers - a computer or server, an operating system and programs, and cybersecurity itself - that controls the hardware and the programs that run on it.
As Zakharova noted, «another important element of this system is a person who operates both hardware and software, everything. Without this main link, everything else is secondary. A person should calculate, analyze, see risks, prevent them, stop them and create an agenda that would replace potential threats. A person is not just a unit. It is a system, a state system, a whole network of departments that should deal with it. Departments must interact, make decisions, this is a whole big story. This is key issue. The meaning is formed by a person, a country, a state.
According to the organizers of PHDays 11, the important point of the digital agenda today is to prevent things that are unacceptable for a person, business, industry, state from happening as a result of digital interference,a hacker attack.
According to Maria Zakharova, this is an utopia: «Then you must stop the development of technology in order to make it unacceptable. The moral and legal framework must certainly be set initially. But you will not be able to prevent development from such achievements, which may cause new challenges, new threats. It is necessary to calculate, to prevent, but work on prevention should set within a policy framework».